Along For The Ride
by mcdib
Summary: New WWE Diva Aubree Laurinaitis gets called up to the main roster and starts to fall for a Shield member. With their new relationship, they find new challenges in the workplace and traveling the world together. *rated M for language and possible sexual content*
1. Chapter 1- Welcome to WWE

"Goodbye, WWE Performance Center. Hello to traveling the world!" I said, I just finished saying my goodbyes to my co-NXT superstars and divas. I am Aubree Laurinaitis and I am 20 years old. I had tears in my eyes as I carried my duffle bag out of the WWE Performance Center. We had just finished the NXT taping and there were some fans lingering outside wanting autographs and pictures. I quickly tried to hide my tears, smiling for the fans. I had just been called-up earlier this week, only the trainers, writers at NXT, and the NXT superstars and divas knew about it. Of course there was gossip backstage, saying the only reason I got called up was because I was John Laurinaitis' daughter. I had been training with WWE since I was 18, right after I graduated high school. My only dream in love was to become a diva and I never considered doing anything else.

My flight landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Monday at around 10 a.m. When I walked off the plane into the airport, I immediately found my dad. Although I haven't seen him in a few months due to schedule conflicts, he kept up with my matches online and would send me critiques and praises. He gave me a huge hug, then we went and got my luggage. When we got in the car, he started explaining what would be going on tonight for RAW. As he was talking I was becoming more and more confused… I thought they called me up to wrestle… but instead they were having me valet RyBack.

"What do you mean valeting _him_?"

"Aubs, I know it isn't what you were expecting, but you'll be great!"  
>"Dad, I don't want to valet him. He's rude, even backstage," I knew I shouldn't be complaining, but I just couldn't help myself, "I am a <em>wrestler<em>! I don't want to be arm candy for some meathead jerk!"

My dad continued driving, just nodding his head occasionally. I knew he wasn't listening and none of my complaining would make a difference, but I was so angry. I had always enjoyed doing promos and backstage segments at NXT, but I would much rather get in the ring and kick some ass.  
>"Aubree, we're here," my dad said, "now be humble, grateful, and happy you got picked to be called up to the main roster, understand?" he added sternly.<br>I rolled my eyes, "sir, yes, sir," I said sarcastically. I checked my makeup in the mirror and took a deep breath. I could feel butterflies in my chest, nervous for what was going to happen when I walked into the arena.

"When we go in, I'll take you to the locker room, show you where catering is, introduce you to some people, then we will meet with Vince and Ryan," my dad said.  
>"Got it," I said as I opened the door. I slid out of the car, and walked to the trunk to receive my bags. I grabbed my suitcase and pulled it along behind me. I was grateful that fans hadn't started congregating outside the gates yet, because I knew my main roster debut was supposed to be a surprise. My dad opened the doors and let me walk in first. My nerves were definitely getting to me, and a wave of doubt washed over me. <em>You don't deserve this, Aubree, <em>I thought to myself, _there are other divas in NXT who should be here before you._ All these negative thoughts swirled around my head, but then my father's voice interrupted my thoughts,  
>"And here is the diva's locker room," he pointed at the door, "you can go in, put your stuff down, the other girls won't bother it," he said. I did as I was told. I left my stuff on the bench and walked back out. There were no other girls in there yet, which gave me a little relief. I followed my dad to catering, even though I was too nervous to eat.<br>"I'm sure Vince is ready to meet you," he said.  
>I gulped, "Oh," was all I could say. I had met Vince many times, but never for anything related to business.<br>"Well there she is! Miss Aubree, what a pleasure it is to see you again," the familiar male voice caught me by surprise. I turned around and was greeted by a huge, Vince McMahon hug. I instantly felt relieved.  
>"Hi, Mr. McMahon!"<br>"Please, Aubree, call me Vince!" he smiled. _What a relief,_ I thought to myself. "Now Ryan should be here momentarily, we can wait for him and then begin."  
>The next ten minutes felt like three hours. Vince and my father talked about the script for tonight's show, while I sat and pretended to listen. I was suddenly ripped from my thoughts as the office door barged open and a large body plopped next to me.<br>"I'm here, Vince. Now you said you had to meet with me? For what?" The voice was husky and deep, it was Ryan.  
>"Ryan, meet your new valet, Aubree Laurinaitis," Vince said. When I turn in my chair to shake Ryan's hand I was met by an angry, hostile stare.<br>"I don't need a fucking valet," he said.  
>I was in shock. Here twenty minutes ago my father was preaching to me to be respectful, then you have a superstar acting like this.<br>"Well you have one. Your character is dull. You need something to spice it up and that something is sitting right next to you," Vince said matter-of-factly.  
>Ryan looked dumbfounded. "I don't need this bitch, I don't need someone who is only signed because of her father. I don't need this at all!" he slammed his hand on the desk and stood up to leave.<br>"Okay, be in gorilla at 9:15. And bring a better attitude." Vince told him before Ryan stormed out of the office. I just sat there dumbfounded.


	2. Chapter 2- The Debut

I was traumatized of what just occurred in the office with Ryan and Vince. I figured most superstars and divas would be arriving soon, which made me even more nervous. Sure, I had met some of them over the years, and others at NXT, but I was anxious to see if they were critical of me in their locker room. I cautiously opened the door to the locker room and saw Trinity, know on TV as Naomi, Nattie, Summer Rae, and The Bella Twins.  
>"Aubree, hey!" Summer greeted me. Summer and I had trained together for years at NXT, so we knew each other well. I hugged Summer and said hello to the other girls. Once I got to Nikki and Brie, they seemingly shrugged me off. I had heard rumors of them shutting out new divas before, because of jealousy, but it still stung a bit.<br>"So, let me guess your daddy got you the big call up so you can hang with the celebrities now," Nikki taunted.  
>I honestly had no idea what to say. I knew I was going to get this a lot, but I wasn't expecting it to be so soon.<br>"Nikki, take it easy," Nattie said, coming to the rescue. Nikki instantly backed off, letting it be known she was annoyed that Nattie stepped up.  
>"So what're they having you do?" Brie asked, I know she asked out of curiosity, and because she wanted to make sure I wouldn't be taking any of her TV time.<br>"I get the pleasure of valeting RyBack," I huffed. Instantly the locker room was full of laughter.

"Girl, I am so sorry you have to deal with that asshole. He only cares about himself, so good luck," Trinity said sympathetically.

Throughout the day the other divas came in and out of the locker room. Mostly introducing themselves to me, none being as hostile as Nikki was. I was beginning to feel more comfortable in the locker room, joking around and making small talk with some of the other divas. AJ Lee, who had been a valet for multiple superstars previously gave me great advice about what to do. We also made small talk about normal girl stuff, finding we had a lot in common.

"You will be great!" AJ assured me. "Let's go grab a bite to eat in catering." I followed her down the hall, in awe of how much respect co-workers and the crew had for her. Practically every superstar said hello to her, then she introduced them to me.

"AUBREE!" I heard a female voice yell, startling me. I turned and saw Emma standing there. Emma had recently made her main roster debut, which made me extremely happy. Emma and I worked many matches in NXT; she was one of my favorite opponents, but also one of my closest friends. "I'm so glad you're finally here!"

"Me too!" I said, giving her a huge hug. We hadn't seen each other in weeks, because of her traveling with the main roster all the time.

"So, ready for your big debut?"

I couldn't help but laugh, "Not really. Ryan is who I have to valet, which is probably the worst case scenario. He didn't seem thrilled when we met earlier." Emma grimaced at that comment. I was sure she had encountered him at some point backstage before.

"Hey, Aubs, I saved you a seat!" I heard AJ call over, "Emma there's a seat for you too!" she added. I smiled. I definitely felt comfortable now.  
><span>_<span>

9:00 came around way quicker than I expected. I had gone to hair and make-up at 7:30, so I was ready, physically at least. I left the locker room and slowly made my way to gorilla. I could hear the crowd from back here, which made my stomach flip.

"You ready for this, kiddo?" my dad said appearing behind me.  
>"Not at all, dad. I'm terrified. If this doesn't go over well, I'm screwed."<p>

"You'll be fine sweetheart, trust me. You wouldn't have been called up if anyone on the  
>executive team doubted your ability," he told me.<p>

Before I knew it I was standing in gorilla, with TV monitors surrounding us. I looked around and saw Vince, Stephanie, Hunter, some other executive producers, Dolph Ziggler, who was fighting RyBack, and then glaring at me from the other corner, Ryan.

"Hey, I'm Dolph, nice to meet ya!" Dolph extended his hand to me. God, he was dreamy. Suddenly I hear his music start playing, _I'm here to show the world, I'm here to show the world come on, bring it on!_ And before I knew it, he was gone and the crowd erupted. My heart was beating faster and faster as I stepped closer to Ryan, wrapping our arms together. I could tell he tensed up immensely.

"Have fun and good luck!" I heard Stephanie yell right before I heard RyBack's music. I followed Ryan's lead out to the ramp, still holding his arm. I always liked being a heel, I found it more fun, but this was painful. Being a heel was great, but pretending to like RyBack was repulsive to me.

"Making his way to the ring, from Sin City, Las Vegas, and being accompanied to the ring by Aubree, RYBACK!" Justin Robert's voice boomed over the music. I strutted to the ring and stood ringside during the match. I knew there would be questions to come as to why I was accompanying him, how we were connected, etc. As much as the thought of having to be around Ryan bothered me, the feeling I got from that live crowd was indescribable and I wouldn't change it for the world. 


	3. Chapter 3- Believe in the Shield

Once we arrived in gorilla after the match, we were greeted with praise from everyone there. The two superstars put on a good match and apparently I did a good job standing ringside, cheering RyBack on.

"Now, Ryan and Aubree, if you would, right down the hall is the cameramen for Backstage Fallout. That's where Aubree will give her reasoning as to why she is with you now," Hunter explained to us. I nodded and walked behind Ryan.

"Don't let them fool you," Ryan said in a monotone voice. I gave him a confused look. "They always tell beginners they are excellent and fantastic and all that jazz. You're mediocre at best, but hey, I'm not the boss OR am I the father of the perfect little diva, am I? That means my opinion doesn't matter."

"Listen, I don't know why you have a problem with me when you don't even know me. I worked my ass off to get here. I didn't get handed a contract because of my father, I am tired of people saying that to me when it isn't true. You don't get to sit here and hate me because you're bitter for some unknown reason, okay?" I snapped. I was so over people telling me I had no talent and I only had a job because of my father. I thought the pettiness would end at NXT.

"First of all, you don't get to tell me what to do, princess. And second of all, you sure as hell don't want to get on my bad side, understand?" his voice was becoming deeper, which scared me. He glared right into my eyes, his eyes full of disgust with me. How could he hate someone he just met so much? Did he hate my dad? Was he mad because I wasn't as high profile as Paul Heyman? I didn't understand and I probably never would.

We continued walking in silence, and I was suddenly pulled from my thoughts when I heard, "Believe that…. And BELIEVE IN THE SHIELD," I looked up and saw that Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns had just finished a clip for Backstage Fallout. The cameraman yelled cut and they instantly changed into their real life personas again.

"Hey, you're that new chick everyone was talking about earlier. I'm Dean Ambrose," I shook his hand. Fear instantly washed over me. _People were talking about me? What were they saying? Probably spreading rumors or something._ I thought to myself.

"Hey, uh, yeah, hi, yeah, I'm Aubree," I said stuttering. Although they worked at NXT, they were called up to travel with the main roster right around the time I began my training. I didn't even know why I was nervous. It could be because I was surrounded by four men significantly larger than me, one of which I definitely knew hated me, and I just met the other three.

"Seth Rollins, great to meet you," Seth extended his hand. "So, I have to ask if it's true, did Nikki really walk in on you blowing Cena to get you to the roster?"

Immediately my eyes opened as wide as they could and I could feel the blood rushing to my face. "No! Oh my God no not at all! That's what people think?! Shit shit shit shit shit! Fucking shit no!" I wanted to cry. Seth started laughing, then Dean followed. Roman smacked Seth on the back of the head.

"Aubree calm down! He just made that up! He likes to joke around. Seth, that's not fucking cool!" Roman stepped up, reaching his hand out to shake mine. I felt nauseous.

"Thank God. That really wasn't funny, Seth!" I complained. Seth continued his laughter. Roman smacked the back of his head again and eventually Seth's laughter died down.

"Aubree, I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist. We all know how Nikki gets with new divas, so we assume she was pretty hostile towards you, right?" Seth said and I nodded. "She'll come around, hopefully. Give her time."

I rolled my eyes at his comment about Nikki, knowing how true that statement was now. I knew it was a woman's nature to be jealous, but she took it to the extreme.

"Aubree, Ryan, ready to go?" the cameraman called out to us. I was suddenly pulled back to work-mode and I nodded. When I went to say goodbye to Dean, Roman, and Seth, I noticed they were already halfway down the hall.


	4. Chapter 4- Traveling with Roman

That night I rode to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Emma. Smackdown was being filmed there the next night. We made casual conversation, sang loudly to the radio, and took shifts driving the nearly five-hour drive. We arrived to the hotel around 4:30 and I was exhausted. As we were checking in, I noticed more and more people gathering in the lobby.

"What's going on?" I whispered to her. She nodded her head to the entrance and I saw Roman, Seth, and Dean walking towards the doors, dragging their suitcases behind them. _Damn, Roman looks hot,_ I thought to myself. I tried to shake those thoughts out of my head. I didn't want to think about getting involved with any of the superstars, _especially_ a top star like Roman. The crowd started cheering when they entered and a deep, male voice yelled "BELIEVE IN THE SHIELD!" They stopped for pictures and autographs before checking in at the front desk.

"Hey, Aubree, Emma," Roman said once they began walking towards us. Suddenly the crowd's attention was on us. The swarm made its way towards us, suddenly markers and paper being shoved at us. I signed the stuff, although I'm sure half the people had no idea who I was, but since Roman Reigns knew me, apparently that mattered.

Once the crowd died down, the five of us boarded the elevator. Emma and I were on the 9th floor, while the boys were on the 8th. "You guys should come work out with us tomorrow," Seth said.

Emma glanced at me and I smiled. "Sure! We'd love too!" she answered for the both of us. The boys said goodbye as the elevator doors opened at the 8th floor.

"We'll probably go at 11:30! We'll meet you in the lobby!" Seth called out, just as the elevator doors came to a close.

That's how we operated over the next couple weeks. After RAW we would usually drive an hour or so, then all stop for a meal, then continue on to the hotel, wake up and work out with them and continue with our day. House shows were different though. Since there were two different circuits of shows Friday through Sunday, Emma and I often got split up. The first week I felt like a lost puppy, luckily Nattie and Summer let me ride and room with them. The Shield seemed to alternate, one weekend they would work the SmackDown house shows, then the next week work RAW. The first week they were with RAW, while I was with SmackDown. It may sound crazy, but I actually really missed them, especially Roman.

The next week they were on the SmackDown circuit, which thrilled me.

"Hey, who are you riding with this weekend?" Roman asked Friday when we met up at the arena once we landed and were both at the arena.

"Probably Nattie again," I told him.

"Oh.. Never mind," he said, turning his attention back to his plate of food.

"Why?"

"I.. Well Swagger isn't working this weekend, and Cesaro asked us to ride with him, but three big dudes in a tiny car, yeah, doesn't sound like much fun. So, I was wondering if you'd want to ride with me?" he said, adding a cheesy-grin.

I couldn't help but smile, "Of course, Roman." I had no idea if he had any feelings towards me or not, but getting to travel in the same car as him sounded like a blast. After we finished eating I rushed back to the diva's locker room to get ready for the show. I grabbed my phone and text Emma.

"_Hey Em, guess what!" _I typed quickly.

_ "What?!"_ she replied almost instantly.

_ "Roman and I are traveling together this weekend!" _Emma knew about my crush on him, she got me to admit to it once night on the road.

"_;)"_ was all Emma typed back. I laughed out loud, then deleted the messages. I would be mortified if somehow another diva got ahold of my phone and read those messages.

"So, what are you craving tonight?" Roman asked about an hour into the trip. Being on the road all the time, in different cities all the time, the options were endless. Roman and I had talked basically the whole time in the car, which I was thankful for. I hate awkward silence.

"We could just take the next exit and pick when we get there," I suggested.

"Sounds good!" he said.

It was not a good idea. We took the exit and saw a McDonalds, a gas station, Arbys, and a sketchy-looking pizza shop. We filled the car's gas tank up, then decided on McDonalds. Luckily since it was pushing midnight, there were not many people in there. Nobody recognized us, so we ate quickly, then went back on the road. I offered to drive, but Roman told me not to worry about it. One thing that I liked about being around Roman was that I felt safe. I felt like nobody would harass me, or try to steal my purse late at night if I was around a 6'3, tattooed Samoan male. It may sound crazy, but I just felt like I could relax around him.

This time when we got back in the car, there was awkward silence. I fiddled with the radio stations until we could find one that wasn't fuzzy. Timber by Kesha and PitBull was on. He was tapping the steering wheel to the beat, while I hummed along. Once that song ended, we talked about storylines and work-related stuff. Before I knew it we were pulling up to the hotel. Luckily for us there were only about ten fans waiting in the lobby. I saw them through the window as we got closer to the door. The closer we got, the more they all looked at each other and talked.

A teenage girl, probably fifteen or so, ran up to Roman immediately. "Is Aubree your girlfriend?!" she asked him.

I could see him instantly tense up. "Oh no, Aubree just needed a ride from the show tonight to here," he said to her.

I felt my heart tighten in my chest, feeling embarrassed. I wanted to yell out, "That's not true! You were the one who needed a person to ride with you!" But I held back, I didn't want him, or anyone around, to see how bad that stung. I couldn't believe he didn't even refer to us as friends.

After all the fans were satisfied, we went to the check in desk. I tried getting a room with a single bed, only for myself, but there was only one room left open with two double sized beds. I glanced at Roman, "I'm sure there's another hotel in town," I told him.

"No, we'll take this one. The arena is right next door, and there is a gym half a block down, this one works." He said.

We split the cost and went to the room. As soon as we got to the room, I went straight to the bathroom to take my makeup off and brush my teeth. After I was finished I changed into a tank top and shorts and crawled under the covers. Roman had ESPN on, watching SportsCenter intently. At a commercial he tried striking up a conversation, but I didn't feel like talking. I answered his questions in 'yes' and 'no' answers, which I knew was bothering him.

"Can I ask what's bothering you?" he rolled over on his bed, facing me.

"Nothing is bothering me. Why would anything be bothering me?"

"I don't know, in the car you were completely fine, but as soon as we hit the lobby, your mood changed,"

"Did it? I didn't even notice," I said nonchalantly.

"Aubree, come on, talk to me,"

"Maybe I don't want to talk, Roman, have you ever thought of that? And why the hell would I talk to someone who isn't even my friend?" I snapped.

A confused look washed over his face, then it hit him. "Is this about what I said to the fan downstairs?" I nodded. "Aubree, no! If I would've said that we are just friends, she would of thought that we were dating, then the whole Twitter and Tumblr world would have been spreading it like wildfire," he finished.

I felt like an idiot. I got so pissed over nothing. I knew Roman was my friend, but I read way too much into it. I knew it had to have been my emotions because I had a crush on him.

"And I mean, I do think I'm starting to fall for you," he said, before turning the television off and rolling over on his other shoulder.


	5. Chapter 5- Feelings Revealed

I laid in the bed staring at the ceiling. 2:30 a.m. passed, 3:00, 4:30, I could not shake what Roman had said. He fell asleep quickly after, but I could not fall asleep. I should've said something. I should've told him that I had feelings for him, but no why in the hell would I do something that makes sense? I wanted to wake him up, kiss him maybe. I began tossing and turning, trying to find a comfortable position. The clock hit 5:00, I was beyond frustrated. I tried listening to Roman's breathing from across the room, hoping if I focused long enough I would just fall asleep, but that didn't work. I quietly got out of bed and slid on my boots. I took the room key and my wallet. I walked to the elevator and went to the first floor. I found a vending machine and bought a bag of Doritos. I went back to the room and started eating the chips as quietly as possible. I pulled my iPad out and opened my Netflix app and turned on Gossip Girl.

"Hey, Aubs, wake up it's noon," I felt Roman gently shaking my shoulder. I pulled the blanket over my head and groaned. He quickly pulled it down and I heard him grab the empty bag of chips and take them to the garbage. "Come on, seriously," he said, his voice half annoyed and half teasing me. I shifted around and sat up.

"Shit, I'm exhausted," I said, rubbing my eyes and stretching.

"What time did you go to bed?"

"I don't know, like 5:30 or 6, I'm not positive," I shrugged.

"What were you doing?"

"Just couldn't sleep," I wasn't sure if I was being short with my answers because I was tired or felt the awkward tension between us. I hoped he didn't think I was just a bitch. He dropped the conversation and put on his tennis shoes.

"Are you coming to the gym? I'm meeting the guys in twenty minutes."

I nodded and stood up. After I finished getting ready, we walked to the elevator in complete silence. I fiddled with my phone while he stared at the ceiling. The ride to the lobby was the longest minute of my life. After the final ding, we walked out, not making eye contact, but as soon as we saw Dean, Antonio, and Seth, he was the most talkative I've ever seen him.

After the workout, we went back to the hotel. He let me shower first, while he packed his stuff up, and when I finished, he jumped in the shower. Once I heard the water running and him humming a beat, I hurried and called Emma.

"Emma, guess what the hell happened last night!" I whisper shouted in the phone.

"Let me guess, you guys hooked up, and then he asked for your hand in marriage?" she said, laughing.

"Not at all," I laughed, "But he told me he liked me."

"Aubree that's great!" she squealed.

"But…"

"Oh no. There's a but?" she sighed.

"I didn't say anything back…"

"Aubree what the hell?! You like him too!"

Before I could reply I heard the water kick off, "I have to go!" I whispered, "Bye!" I hung up. She was right. I was an idiot. Why wouldn't I have just told him that I liked him too? I heard the bathroom door open and Roman walked out with a towel around his waist. _God damnit, _I thought. _Aubree, would you just tell him already?_

"Hey Ro, can we talk for a minute?" I asked nervously.

"Sure!" he said, then his phone rang. He held his finger up, indicating it would only be a minute. I heard him mumbling, saying yes sir, no sir. I watched him as he paced back in forth in front of the beds, trying to hear who was on the other end. Being nosey was not one of my best traits… When he finally hung up he looked worried. "That was Hunter, I have to go the arena right now," he said fumbling around the room, grabbing all his stuff.

"I'll go with you," I said, jumping up to gather my belongings as well. We rushed around the room in silence, making sure we had everything. We checked out of the hotel and walked to the car. "Are you in trouble?" I asked, nervously.

"I'm not really sure. He just asked if I was busy at the moment, then told me to get to the arena as soon as possible." I could tell he was trying to hide the fact he was nervous. He was steering the car with his left hand, with his right hand resting on the control stick. I reached over and grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze. He glanced at me and gave me a half smile, and I smiled back.

Luckily we were worried about nothing. In fact, Roman's meeting with Hunter was a good meeting. Hunter wanted to discuss with Roman about the upcoming split of The Shield, Roman's face turn, and his future push. He had already began showing signs of becoming a face on television, and in his first Royal Rumble match he broke Kane's elimination record. From what Roman told me about the meeting, they had major future plans for him.

"So, there was something you wanted to talk about before Hunter called earlier, wasn't there?" he asked me while we were sitting in a random section of seats in the arena. Due to the meeting, we were the first ones at the arena. I had my feet on the seat in front of me, turned slightly facing him.

I felt my heart begin to race, "Uhm, yeah actually. I wanted to tell you that…" I could feel my face getting red as he stared at me intently. "I really like you.. I don't know why I didn't say anything last night. You caught me off guard, it was so unexpected. I don't know, but I really do like you." I felt myself blushing. I glanced up at him and he was smiling.

"Well good, because if we're being honest I was terrified. When you didn't answer I thought I scared you off completely," he said, chuckling softly. I could see his cheeks turning a light shade of red and I laughed. He was adorable when he was embarrassed. "Well, Miss Aubree, how would you like to travel with me regularly?"


	6. Chapter 6- Backstage Fallout

Traveling with Roman on Saturday night and Sunday night was great. Monday Night Raw was in Knoxville, Tennessee tonight. On Sunday nights the whole roster usually ends up at the same hotel, which means Emma and I were finally reunited after this weekend. She text me as soon as she checked in and I immediately went and found her room.

"What happened this weekend?! Spill all the details!" she said, as soon as she opened the door. I explained everything to her about Roman and I. She smiled and squealed throughout the whole story, which made me talk even faster. "I can't believe you two are official now!"

"Me either!"  
>"So what's going to happen tonight when he's back with his boys tonight?" she asked.<br>"I have no idea… He asked me to travel with him all the time, but I don't really want to travel with Seth and Dean too, you know? Nothing against them, but I don't want to be the only girl with those three…" I said. I saw the instant look change on Emma's face. She looked sad, even betrayed. I just realized that I had agreed to travel with Roman all the time, forgetting about my best friend.

After Emma and I were done talking, I walked back to the room I was sharing with Roman. It was almost time to go workout, but I wanted to talk to him before. I walked through the door and he was zipping up his jacket.

"Hey, I know it's almost time to go, but can we talk real quick?" I asked him. When he nodded I continued, "So what are you doing for travel tonight?"

"Oh… Well we can go together if you want," he said, hesitantly.  
>"If you wanna go with the boys that's fine, I just wanted to know so I could let Emma know,"<p>

"It's up to you, I don't care."  
>"I don't care either." There was an awkward silence in the room, we just stared at each other. His phone beeped and the eye contact was broken.<br>"It was Seth, they're heading to the gym now." He said, grabbing his keys. I followed him out the door. When we got to the lobby there was a sea of fans. By now I knew all of the fans wanted to see Roman when it was the two of us, so I let him walk in front while trailing behind him. Some of the fans recognized me and asked for pictures, which I happily obliged to.

We finally all made it through the lobby and were headed to the gym. Gold's Gym was three blocks down the road, and it was the longest walk of my life. Roman, Dean, and Seth talked the entire way, completely excluding me from the conversation as if I wasn't even there. I scrolled through my Twitter app while walking behind them, eventually tuning out what they were talking about. We all filed into the gym and went our separate ways. I always started out on the elliptical, while Roman went straight to weights. The gym was pretty empty, which was always a plus. We all finished our workouts in peace and luckily without any interruptions.

When we all left the gym, I didn't even bother taking my headphones off. I walked behind them again, not knowing if we were stopping somewhere to get food, or just going back to the hotel. I was texting Emma while walking, letting her know that I would be riding with her tonight.

We ended up getting food, then walking back to the hotel. While we were eating, I was still excluded I felt. I tried getting involved in the conversation, but as soon as I would, they would already be on the next topic. I was getting frustrated, so I didn't wait for them to finish eating before excusing myself and going back to the hotel. I was already showered and mostly done with makeup before Roman got back to the room.  
>He stepped over me to set his stuff on his bed, then sat next to me on the floor in front of the mirror.<br>"What's wrong?" he asked me.  
>"What do you mean?"<br>"You totally bailed during lunch and you hardly said two words the whole time we were out," he said.  
>"Not true. I tried talking. Every time I would talk, the subject would get changed. And I figured it would be easier if I was already done getting ready when you got back,"<br>"I didn't mean for you to feel left out," he said, kissing my cheek, "I just haven't hung out with them in a while."  
>"But you saw them every day this weekend, just didn't travel with them?" I questioned.<br>"Yeah, it's just different. We're used to seeing each other every day, basically all day. I'm sorry you felt left out. I won't let it happen again," he said, kissing my cheek before getting up and going to shower.

Backstage at RAW tension was running high. Vince and Hunter were clashing on what script they wanted to go with and neither would compromise on what they wanted. Everyone backstage was really quiet all day, walking on eggshells. Writers were frantically trying to figure something out, with the clock quickly ticking away to 7:30. Finally at 6:45, everything was finalized. Tonight RyBack was fighting Justin Gabriel for the Superstars taping. Things still weren't getting better between Ryan and I backstage, so I felt like they were suffering on screen. Although we never got called in for a meeting about it, I was extra worried about it tonight because of all the tension backstage with Vince and Hunter.

At 7:15 I decided to go find Ryan and talk to him before the show. He obviously wasn't thrilled about seeing me, but I felt this talk was necessary.  
>"Ryan, can you please try to act like you like me a little bit more tonight? I just feel like-"<br>But he interrupted me. "Listen, I don't want this bullshit. I don't like you. I don't need you. Hopefully everyone is beginning to see that you aren't worth the time or money that's being invested in you," I stared at him stunned as he was saying this. "You're useless. You don't make my character more interesting. I'm just waiting till you fucking get fired," he said. I was speechless. I felt like crying right there. "Oh, and just so you know, even though tensions are high in gorilla right now, they don't give two fucks about what you do out there. This is a taping for Superstars. They won't even be paying attention," he said, walking away bumping his shoulder into mine as he went.

After Ryan had walked away I leaned against the wall and began to cry. At first it was just a silent cry, tears streaming down my face, but it didn't take long for full sobs to take over. Was I really that useless? Was I here because of who my dad was? Everything was becoming so mixed up in my head, I didn't even want to go out to the ring. I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw it said 7:30. Luckily there was a dark match that wasn't being filmed before Ryan's match. I stood myself up and wiped away the tears and walked to gorilla.

"What the hell happened to you!?" Vince screamed as soon as I stepped into the curtained area.  
>"What do you mean?"<br>"Your face! Why is there makeup all down your face?!" His screams getting louder. Then I heard a chuckle come from the corner and saw it was Ryan.  
>"Shit! Vince I'm so sorry." I said, frantically reaching for a tissue to try and fix it. Luckily Stephanie was there to help me. By the time the dark match was over we had everything fixed up and I was ready to go out to the ring with Ryan.<p>

Lucky for me, the match was over in less than five minutes. After Ryan and I celebrated the win in the ring and Justin Gabriel had made his way backstage, we finally walked up the ramp and back to gorilla. When we got there we were greeted by a very angry Vince, Hunter, and my dad, who was fuming.  
>"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM, RYAN?" my dad immediately in his face. Ryan looked confused, while I was just scared. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"<br>Ryan remained silent, which was pissing my dad off more. His face was getting redder and redder, when Hunter stepped in between them. "John, step back. Now Ryan, how do you think you can get away with treating Aubree like this? We don't tolerate this behavior. Her call-up had nothing to with her father, so from this point on, your push is no longer happening." Hunter said, his voice stern, but not yelling.  
>Ryan didn't say anything, but realized nobody else was going to say anything so he walked out. I hesitantly walked out behind him.<br>"Do you see what you fucking did?!" he yelled at me once we got away from gorilla.  
>"I didn't do anything, you did."<br>"No! You're ruining everything!" he screamed at me. Frankly, I thought he was being overdramatic, but I just let him go on his rant without interrupting him. "I hate you. I'd watch your fucking back," he said, looking straight in my eyes before walking away.


	7. Chapter 7- From Bad to Worse

I wish I could say the rest of the night got better, but that'd be a lie. After the incident with Ryan, I walked back to the locker room, just wanting to change into yoga pants and a t-shirt, but when I got to the locker room, I found Nikki going through my bags with my stuff surrounding her on the floor.  
>"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" I screamed at her.<br>She whipped around, looking like a deer in headlights, "I..uh-I just,"  
>"Save it, Nikki. What the fuck were you doing in my bag?" I asked her, then noticed my phone in her hand. Fury immediately took over. I darted across the room, grabbing my phone from her and shoving her into the lockers. "TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"<br>She looked at me with huge eyes, "We wanted to know if it was true."  
>"IF WHAT WAS TRUE?!"<br>"That you're dating Roman."  
>Instantly I got even more pissed, seeing my belongings all over the floor. "SO YOU SEARCH MY STUFF RATHER THAN JUST ASKING ME TO MY FACE?"<br>"Well, I know you don't really like me, so I figured you wouldn't tell me."  
>I glanced at the floor, seeing my clothes all spread out. I reached down and picked up my shirt and saw a pair of scissors laying on the floor, buried underneath them. Nikki looked around, even though it was only us in the locker room. I realized there were cuts all over my shirt. When I picked up my yoga pants, I found the same thing. All of my clothes had cuts all through them. I was in shock. Tears were forming in my eyes. All the clothes I had packed for this week were ruined.<br>"I can't believe you did this," was all I could say before I had to turn around and leave the locker room with tears in my eyes.  
>I walked to the area where the merchandise is stored backstage and began to look through the boxes. No way in hell would I be seen wearing a shirt in support of John Cena, Nikki's boyfriend. I kept searching through the boxes and I finally found a Shield one. I went and found Emma, sitting in catering with Summer.<br>"Hey, do either of you have a pair of leggings or sweats I could borrow? Nikki destroyed all of my stuff, so I don't have anything to wear. I'll buy you a new pair if I can just borrow a pair," I said, slumping into a chair at their table.  
>"Yeah of course I have a pair!" Emma said. Summer finished her yogurt and we walked back to the locker room. Nikki was gone, luckily, so it was just the three of us. I slid The Shield's shirt on, then taking the leggings from Emma. When the door to the locker room opened, I jumped. Luckily it was just AJ and Tamina, who had a match for Superstars after RyBack's. I had honestly never felt so out of place somewhere. AJ and Tamina made small talk with me, but I still didn't feel like I belonged there.<br>"Oh la-la, wearing The Shield's shirt? Which one is it you're trying to impress?" AJ smirked, saying it in a jokingly manner.  
>"Well… I mean… I'm kinda…" I tried to find the right words to say.<br>"She's dating Roman. AJ where the hell have you been? EVERYONE has been talking about it all day!" Tamina said. I let out a chuckle  
>AJ's jaw fell open, "WHAT?! HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THAT?" She yelled. I shrugged. "Coming from someone dating another superstar, here's some advice," I instantly got nervous when she said that, "Don't let the backstage drama get to you. People will try to start stuff to shake you up, don't let it," I nodded, "Try to keep it as low-key as possible. Once it leaks and gets on social media, you'll probably end up with death threats on twitter and stuff, but ignore it. If you're happy, you're happy. Don't get caught up with the petty shit and you'll be fine."<br>I appreciated AJ's honesty, but all her comments worried me. Death threats? Backstage drama? I knew AJ took a lot of slack for her relationship with CM Punk, people truly believed she was the longest reigning diva's champion because of her relationship status. The last thing I wanted was people saying that I was here cause of my dad and got to stay because of my boyfriend. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten in a relationship so soon.  
>"Thanks AJ, I really appreciate all of that."<br>"Anytime girl! Anytime you want to talk, I'm here for you. There's a good chance that I've experienced all the ups and downs of the relationship life backstage, so I'll always be here for you," she said. She was changing into another one of her authentic t-shirts for her match later on in the night. If there was one diva I wished to have a career like, it was most definitely AJ. Talented, respected, and most of all entertaining.

Around 9:40, I was headed towards catering to see what sweets they had. It seemed as if everyone was staring at me. I saw Nikki, Cameron, Brie, and Aksana sitting at a table in the corner laughing, but when they saw me they instantly stopped. I got extremely uncomfortable walking across the room, trying to focus on the table of cupcakes, cookies, and chocolate. The walk seemed like an hour long, but it was under a minute.

When I was reaching down for a sugar cookie, I felt two arms wrap around me and a face pressed against my neck. "Hey baby, that's a pretty nice shirt you have on," Roman's deep voice whispered in my ear.  
>I tried squirming out of his grip, "Please stop, not here." He looked confused. "This is too public."<br>"I don't care, everyone knows already, it's not a shocker," he said kissing my cheek.  
>"Stop, seriously. I'll explain everything. Just not in here."<br>He still looked confused, even defeated, but he released me and we walked down the hall. I explained everything from tonight to him, from the incidents with Ryan, to Nikki destroying my stuff, and then the talk I had with AJ. He sat on the floor with me, listening to me go on and on patiently, twisting my long hair with his fingers.  
>When I finished he looked right in my eyes. We stared at each other for a few moments before he said, "Don't let those things bother you. We're together. It's you and me. Nobody else matters. As for Ryan, I'll talk to him. For Nikki, ignore her, she's irrelevant. She has no room to talk about people getting where they are, look who she's dating and where she is. You're a great diva, great valet, and a great person. Anyone who can't see those things is missing out," he said before giving me a kiss.<p> 


	8. Chapter 8- The Break In

It has been almost a month since the huge blowout backstage occurred with Ryan, which also means it's been almost a month since I have been on television. They really weren't kidding when they said he was no longer getting a push. He was in a shit load of trouble. I was getting frustrated as well. I still had to travel every night and wasn't even getting used. The past few weeks I had also been going to NXT to do television tapings on my off days. I felt beyond stressed out and on the verge of a breakdown. Things were difficult with Roman, due to our scheduling conflict. We hardly saw each other. He was extremely busy with media interviews and other appearances, while I was always on the road. It seemed like lately we were always on opposite house show circuits, which was even worse. In the locker rooms, both at NXT and the main roster, I felt like an outsider. Sure, I had Emma and AJ on the main roster and I did have friends at NXT, I just felt like I didn't belong anywhere.  
>On a Wednesday night after a long day of training and an NXT taping, I was approaching my apartment, anxious to just heat up Ramen Noodles and lay on my couch all night, watching television. When I approached the door, something seemed strange. I slowly put the key in the door, quietly pushing it open. I saw the light from the kitchen on, which I knew was off when I left this morning. I immediately reached for the umbrella standing up against the wall by the door and had my phone grasped in the other hand. My heart was beating out of my chest as I approached the kitchen.<br>"WHOEVER YOU ARE YOU HAVE TWO SECONDS TO GET OUT BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE!" I screamed, pulling the umbrella back like a baseball bat. I turned the corner to see Roman standing next to the oven with a grin on his face.  
>"Surprise baby," he said smiling.<br>"Roman fucking Reigns, I almost called the fucking police. You scared the shit out of me!" I said, my heart finally going back to its normal rate. "I thought you were a burglar!"

All he could do was laugh. He would not stop laughing no matter how many times I stomped my foot and pouted. "How the hell did you get in anyways? Aren't you supposed to be in Minneapolis for a radio show?" I had so many questions.

"I was supposed to… but they cancelled last night, so I figured I would fly down here and surprise you. As for me getting in… let's just say Emma was persuaded very easily."

Of course it was Emma. She had a key from when she stayed with me a few months ago before she was called up to the main roster and she never gave her key back. "How did you persuade her?"

"Well I know she has a crush on Mr. Rollins… So, after RAW next week we are all going to travel together. Dean is going to go with Antonio that night and we'll have a little double date." He said, then turning his attention back to the stove. I walked up behind him and saw he was cooking spaghetti, which was one of my favorite meals. "I wasn't expecting you to be back so soon, this was going to be a lot more romantic, I had candles and everything planned, but someone had to come back early," he said, ending the sentence in a mocking tone.

"I can leave and come back if it makes you feel better," I said, giggling at him. I found it incredibly sweet that he was going through all of this just for me.

"Nah, I guess you can stick around, that's fine," he said with his back turned towards me.  
>_<p>

I was pleasantly surprised with how good of a cook Roman was. The spaghetti was amazing. Everything about the evening was perfect. I had completely forgotten about all the stress I had about work during the evening with Roman. It had been such a long time since it was only him and I, it was refreshing to just be able to sit and talk about everything except work.

"I'll clean up since you did all the hard work," I said when we were both finished eating. He offered to help, but I didn't want him to. I washed all the dishes and placed them on the counter to dry. We both walked to the living room couch and fell onto it with a loud thump. We flipped through the channels on TV and settled for Girl Code on MTV. Roman asked if everything they said was true. I told him most of the stuff was stuff every girl could relate to, which made him more interested. He had his arm wrapped around my shoulder tightly, making me feel completely safe. He leaned down and kissed the top of my head and I looked up at him and smiled.

"I'm getting tired," I told him, standing up to walk to my bedroom. He stood up behind me and followed me.

"It is okay that I stay tonight, right?" he asked me.

"Absolutely!" I walked over to kiss him. He grabbed my face and intensified the kiss. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. Our tongues battled for dominance, which he ended up winning. I could feel us traveling, then him placing me on my bed. He pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his tanned and toned body.

I suddenly felt uncomfortable because I was in the leggings and t-shirt I put on after the NXT show, with a sports bra and boy-short underwear on underneath. Roman was kissing around my jawline and neck. He found my sweet spot and I let out a soft moan. When he heard me, he intensified the kissing. I tugged at his hair, trying to contain myself.

Before I knew it my top and bra were off revealing my bare chest to him. Before I could even feel self-conscious about being naked in front of him, he was flicking my nipple with his tongue. Soon enough both of our pants were off. The sweet, romantic Roman from earlier was gone and he had transformed into something I had never seen before. His eyes were glazed over with lust. He was tossing me around the bed like a ragdoll.

He threw me down on my back again and hovered over me. "You ready for this, baby?" he asked, teasing me with his erection. I nodded. "Nope. Say it. Beg for it."

I felt my cheeks getting red, I felt so uncomfortable, but I could tell he was getting impatient. "BEG FOR IT!" he yelled.

"Please Roman, please just fuck me!" I yelled. And I got what I asked for. Roman pounded into me, without giving me time to adjust to his size. The pain turned into pleasure. The most pleasure I have ever had in my entire life. I was raking my nails down his back, screaming. He kept kissing me, trying to muffle my screams and moans, but it didn't work.

He flipped us over, "ride me, baby," he demanded. I bounced on him, while he laid on his back moaning. I kept changing speeds, going from fast to really slow, to faster, back and forth. He was biting his lip and moaning beneath me. I scratched up and down his tattoo on his chest, while using it for balancing.

"Roman, god, I'm-uh-fuckin close!" I yelled. Hearing those words flipped a switch in him. He met me thrust for thrust, harder and harder. We both came at the same time, collapsing on the sheets right after.

I laid still on my back, staring at the ceiling trying to catch my breath. I knew I was definitely going to be sore the next day, that was a given. The Roman that I just saw in bed worried me, dominating and controlling, although it turned me on, I was afraid that I would begin to see these traits in him daily. I tried not to think too much into it because it was normal for people to have a freaky side come out during sex.

Before I could think too much, I felt his arm drape over me, "Aubree…" I turned my head over my shoulder, looking into his eyes, "I love you," he said kissing my cheek.

I was in absolute shock. I turned over onto my other side so I was face to face with him. "I love you too, Roman." I kissed him. "But, I really have to go shower because I can't sleep like this," I giggled at ran off to the shower.


	9. Chapter 9- The Double Date

Roman kept his promise to Emma about the double date with Seth. All day long, Emma kept asking me questions about what she should wear, what would be good conversation starters, things like that. I found it adorable that she was this nervous. She was bouncing around the locker room all day, I hoped she didn't act this over the top during the date.

Roman and I now had a system to get alone time during the day. We would go sit in a random section of seats in the arena, just so we could have a half hour or an hour to ourselves with our crazy schedules.  
>"So is Seth excited about tonight?" I asked hesitantly, afraid of Roman's answer.<br>"Yeah, he actually seems interested in Emma."  
>I sighed out of relief, "I have never seen her more excited. Well, maybe when she got the call-up to the main roster, but other than that, never."<p>

Roman started laughing, "I honestly can't see why anyone would be that excited over HIM, but whatever floats her boat I suppose," he continued laughing.

For the next forty-five minutes we sat and talked about RAW tonight, the date after, and we were beginning to talk about our day off this week, when my phone beeped.

_Get to Vince's office IMMEDIATELY. _I read the text from my dad over and over again, my heart beating super quick in my chest. Roman put his arm around me to calm me down, but it didn't work.  
>"It'll be fine…" he reassured me. I knew he was lying, I could tell in his uneasy tone that he was just as nervous as me. I ran through every possible scenario in my head. I was never late, I worked my ass off everywhere I was, and I didn't take a day off. I began to wonder if my relationship with Roman had anything to do with it.<br>Before I knew it we were in front of Vince's office. "I'll be right out here, I promise," Roman said, kissing me before pushing me lightly towards the door.

I took a deep breath and turned the doorknob. When I pushed the door open I saw Vince, Stephanie, Hunter, my dad, and other top executives sitting at a table. Nobody said a word as I walked to the empty chair. The room was so silent I was sure that everyone could hear my heart beating. I sat down lightly in the chair, trying to calm my shaky hands.  
>"Aubree," Vince started. I couldn't detect the mood he was in by his voice, so I became even more nervous. "We know you've been frustrated by not getting used in the past weeks, but we want you to know it has nothing to do with you. Ryan is being punished for his actions," I nodded, wishing he would just get to the point already. "We also know how exhausted you must be, we all know how hard you have been working. It is not an easy task traveling five days a week and only being at home two days, but you sacrifice your days off to continue to learn at NXT," I was nodding along with everything he said. "Do you happen to have your ring gear here tonight?"<br>I nodded again.  
>"How would you like to make your in-ring debut tonight?" Vince asked me.<br>At first I was in complete shock and couldn't move. I couldn't even process what he had just said. "Wait… Are you serious?!" I practically yelled.  
>"Of course we are, sweetheart. We have all taken great note on your matches at NXT. You are completely ready for this, we are sure of it." Stephanie said.<br>"But, I'm not 21…"  
>"Well neither was JoJo, was she?" Hunter said, laughing slightly.<br>I jumped up and started squealing. I jumped around the room, which I knew was unprofessional, but I didn't care in this moment. I continued squealing as I ran around hugging everyone that was in the room. I thanked everyone dozens of times. Vince told me that I was excused and I ran out of the office. When I opened the door, Roman was leaning against the wall with a huge grin on his face. I ran and jumped on him wrapping my legs around his waist. He embraced me in one of his huge hugs and spun me around. "I'm so proud of you, baby," Roman told me, before kissing me. He finally set me down.  
>"Roman, I'm so excited. This is what I've been working so hard for!"<br>"I know. You're going to be great! I can't wait to watch my girl debut," he said.

Roman and I walked to catering, excited to tell Emma the great news. She was sitting at a table with Summer when I ran over to them.  
>"Guess who gets to debut tonight!" I said, accidentally interrupting their conversation. They both squealed out of excitement for me, when I heard a scoff come from behind me.<br>"Of course _she_ gets to debut. It only makes sense that she hasn't been relevant for over a month, then once everyone knows she's dating Roman, she gets to debut in a match, _imagine that,"_ Nikki's loud voice turned everyone's attention to us, which pissed me off.

I stood up and got face to face with her, "Yeah, Nikki, cause you have room to talk. You left WWE, and you only came back because you're dating Cena. Without him and your reality show, you're nothing."  
>Nikki was shocked that I talked back to her, then I could see the rage come through her eyes. "Oh really? You're pissed off cause you're not a star. I'm a star diva, a reality star, soon to be movie star, I'm just a star. And you couldn't even handle a valet gig, nice try though,"<br>"Maybe because to me it's not about how famous I can get, or how many followers I have on twitter. I'm here because I want to be a wrestler, you're here for a paycheck and the spotlight."

Nikki pulled her hand back and slapped my face. Before I could return the slap, I felt Roman's arms pulling me back from her. I was kicking and swinging my arms, trying to get free of his grip, but it was impossible. He dragged me out of catering before I could get my hands on Nikki. I was beyond pissed now. Once Roman got me out of catering, he put me down and blocked me in against the wall.  
>"She is nothing. Ignore her," he said, he sounded caring, but also said it sternly.<br>"But I-"  
>Roman interrupted me before I could say anything else, "She is nothing. Ignore it."<br>I slid down the wall and pouted. Roman sat down next to me, not saying anything. I twiddled my thumbs briefly, before looking up and seeing my dad standing there looking down at us.  
>"Back to Vince's office, Aubree. Now," was all he said before walking away.<p>

I sighed heavily and stood up. Because of Nikki, I was probably going to get my match taken away from me tonight. I sulked the whole way down the corridor. I reached the office and pushed the door open and saw Nikki already sitting at the table, looking annoyed that she was called in.  
>I sat in a chair as far away from Nikki as possible, avoiding looking at her.<br>"So, who wants to tell me what happened?" Hunter spoke loudly, I could tell just how pissed he was in that short sentence.  
>I began to speak up, but was cut off by Nikki, "She walked into catering running her mouth how she was the best and that she should've debuted months ago, then when I walked up to her she told me I was a bitch and shoved me. I slapped her out of self-defense."<br>"THAT'S A FUCKING LIE. THAT IS THE MOST BULLSHIT STORY I'VE EVER HEARD!" I screamed across the table. I felt Hunter putting his hand on my shoulder, in attempt to calm me down, but I wasn't calming down. I was pissed that she had the balls to lie to everyone, thinking she could get away with it.  
>"Aubree… Would you like to tell your side of the story?" Stephanie asked across the table.<br>I began to explain what actually happened, trying to keep my temper under control. Nikki sat cross-armed across the table, glaring at me. I still wish I knew what I did to have her hate me so much. Stephanie, Hunter, and Vince listened carefully to everything I said. "You can ask anyone that was in catering when it happened, they'll tell you the real story," I added at the end. Obviously Nikki's closest friends would defend her and her lies, but I hoped they understood that I was the one telling them the truth.  
>"Well, the people we have talked too saw what happened and everything matches what Aubree said, so Nikki you are getting pulled from the show tonight," Stephanie told her.<p>

Nikki slammed her hands on the table, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS ISN'T FAIR!" she yelled.  
>Stephanie shrugged and dismissed us. Thank God I knew I wasn't going to be fighting Nikki tonight.<p>

Later on in the day I found out that I was going to be in a six-diva tag team match. I was teaming with AJ and Tamina and we were facing Natalya, Cameron, and Naomi. I was happy being a heel on television, because I felt it was easier to get the crowd against you, rather than cheering for you. I got my hair and makeup done by the makeup artist and squeezed into my attire, making last minute adjustments with the seamstress. I was getting extremely nervous about the debut, but I knew in my mind I was ready.  
>Around 9:15 I made my way to gorilla position with AJ and Tamina. They were both running through all the scenarios that could happen during the match and telling me not to panic if we missed a spot. I trusted the older girls completely and I was starting to relax. We walked behind the curtain and saw the opposing team. Nattie greeted us all with a hug and a huge smile on her face. We heard Natalya's music hit and she disappeared into the crowd. About a minute later Naomi and Cameron's music played, they left. AJ and Tamina were next. I was "the mystery teammate" that the announcers had been hyping up all night, so I got to go by myself.<p>

_Let's light it up, light it up light it up light it tonight, _AJ's music blared. She tossed the title over her shoulder and skipped out onto the stage. I heard the crowd, which increased my heart rate. Suddenly her music stopped and I heard Justin Roberts' voice, "and their tag team partner, from San Bernardino, California, Aubree Laurinaitis!" My NXT music hit and I slowly made my way out to the ring. I flipped my hair around, waving off the fans, all the typical heel moves. I slowly went through the ropes, going straight to my team.  
>The match went fast, really fast. I got to start it off, facing Nattie, which was an honor. I was in the ring for under three minutes and got put in the sharpshooter. I escaped the submission, leaping and tagging Tamina in. Tamina did all the hard-hitting against Cameron, then tagged in AJ to do her signature move, The Black Widow, and have Cameron tap out for us to get the win. We celebrated in the ring, before turning and attacking the other team. After a few minutes of attacking the other team, refs flooded from the back and pulled us apart. We made our way back up the ramp, with smirks on our faces.<p>

I was still on my high from my debut all throughout the night and the double date had completely slipped my mind. After RAW was over, I met Emma in the parking lot. Instead of her usual yoga pants and hoodie traveling outfit, she was wearing a cute sweater with a glitter tank top underneath, with a pair of jeans and boots. She looked nice, then there was me. I found it more comfortable traveling in yoga pants and t-shirts, so I felt underdressed.  
>"Hey Aubree!" she practically yelled in her adorable Australian accent. I approached her and said hello, scanning the parking lot for Roman and Seth. I heard the fans by the gate screaming, so I turned around and saw them stopped with fans, signing autographs and taking pictures. The car we had had tinted windows, luckily, so Emma and I squeezed in the back seat so the fans wouldn't see us getting in the same car as them. Somehow Roman and I have kept our relationship completely private and fans had no idea.<p>

Roman and Seth started the car and pulled out of the parking lot before they said anything to us. "So, where do you two want to eat?" Roman asked, glancing back at us in the rearview mirror.  
>"Emma, you can pick," I told her.<br>"Oh, uhm, I don't really know anywhere around here…" she started. I glanced at her, silently telling her to decide. "We could just go to Outback," she said, pointing to an exit sign with the Outback Steakhouse logo showing.  
>Roman chuckled, "the Aussie would pick Outback," he said, taking the exit. Luckily it was still opened, even though it was late. We walked into the mostly empty restaurant. There were four middle-aged men sitting at the bar and only a few tables occupied. We got seated in a normal-sized booth, Emma and Seth sitting on one side, Roman and I on the other.<br>We had just gotten our food when one of the guys from the bar recognized us. "My daughter loves The Shield!" he said obnoxiously, drawing attention to us, "Can I have an autograph from y'all? And a picture too?" Everyone still there looked at us. Roman and Seth signed a napkin, then the guy turned his attention to Emma and I, "You look familiar," he said, "Are y'all divas?" We nodded. Then he asked for a group picture. That's when I knew we were screwed. He would show his teenage daughter, then it would end up all over social media, exposing everything.  
>Once we were left alone again, Emma and Seth were completely focused on each other. Seth seemed really into Emma, which was great. We finished eating and got back into the car. Roman was driving and I sat shotgun, leaving Emma and Seth in the back. I glanced back at one point and saw Emma's head on Seth's shoulder and she was sound asleep. Seth saw me look at them and he just smiled at me, then wrapped his arm around Emma even tighter.<p> 


	10. Chapter 10- TotalDivas

Once we finally reached our hotel, Emma was wide awake. She and I shared a room tonight, while Roman and Seth were down the hall. Once we got checked in and said our goodnights, she ran into our room and began jumping on her bed. She was jumping around like a thirteen year old girl. I wasn't even aware that she had developed such a crush on Seth, but she definitely had. She went on and on for a good hour about everything that I was there to witness. I smiled and listened to everything, seeing as she listened to everything about Roman with no complaints.  
>Finally she fell asleep, mid-conversation. In a way, I was grateful for the peace and quiet. I was extremely happy for my best friend, but I didn't want her to get her hopes too high, just in case Seth didn't feel exactly the same way.<p>

The minute Emma woke up, she was talking about Seth again. She was so excited to go to the gym with him today, she was so excited to ride to the arena, and she was so excited to travel with him again tonight. I didn't have the heart to tell her I hadn't asked Roman the plans for tonight. I'm sure he wouldn't care, but it was Seth I was worried about. I had seem Emma in previous relationships, but she was never this crazy about someone, someone she wasn't even dating yet.  
>"I… haven't exactly asked Roman what tonight's plans are…" I said cautiously.<br>"Oh it's fine! I just kinda figured…" I could hear her tone flattening, like I had just sucked all the air out of her.  
>"Em… Do you think you're falling too hard too fast?"<br>"No.. Okay maybe a little. I don't know, okay?! I really like him. Last night was perfect! He's a gentleman, he's funny, charismatic, adorable, I don't know Aubree, he's just great!"  
>I was speechless. She really was head over heels for him now. "I'll go talk to Roman now, okay? Just get ready for the gym."<br>When I got to Roman and Seth's room I could hear music playing, which was a good sign because that meant they were both awake. I knocked and Seth answered quickly.  
>"Hey! Come on in!" he sounded more cheerful than usual. I walked in and saw Roman standing in a towel.<br>"Hey handsome," I walked over, giving Roman a kiss and hugging him.  
>"Well this just got a little weird," Seth said, slowly slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door. I sat back on Roman's bed while he pulled shorts on.<br>"We need to talk," I whispered to him, hoping Seth wasn't listening through the door. Roman looked concerned. "It's about Emma," I said even softer. His face relaxed and he nodded.  
>"We'll talk on our way to the gym," he said. Minutes later Emma knocked and Seth answered it again. She bounced her way into the room. Her onscreen character was so similar to her in real life, it was scary. She was so bubbly and happy all the time, it was uplifting to be around her.<br>"You guys ready to go?" Seth asked us, picking up his water bottle and keys, making his way to the door.  
>"I think we're going to do a mini pre-workout, if you know what I mean," Roman winked, "we'll catch up with you soon!" Seth got the hint and left with Emma. "So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked sitting next to me when they left.<br>"Emma is _really_ falling for him," I told him. Then I went on to explain everything about last night and this morning. "Does he feel the same way?"  
>He chuckled, "Yeah, he really likes her, but wasn't sure if she felt the same."<br>"THIS IS GREAT!" I yelled. I heard the keycard being slid into the door and immediately got nervous. Seth pushed open the door, covering his eyes with his hands.  
>"Whatever is great, I don't want to know. I need my phone then I'll leave," Seth fumbled around the room for a minute before he found his phone on the television stand.<br>"We're dressed man, you can uncover your eyes," Roman told him. Seth sighed a sigh of relief and removed his hand.  
>"Damn, I didn't realize you couldn't last that long," Seth said, shrugging and turning to leave.<br>"Shut up Seth. We didn't do anything, we were talking."  
>"Mhm." Seth said, nodding and leaving. Roman and I stood up, following behind, ready to get in an actual workout.<p>

I got to have a match on SmackDown. This time it was a singles match versus Natalya, with AJ and Tamina at ringside for me, and Naomi and Cameron cheering on Nattie. The match was great back and forth, until Nattie put me in a sharpshooter. Once it was locked in and I was about to tap, Tamina came in and delivered a super-kick to Nattie. Once again, a full out brawl occurred in the ring. Tonight though, the team of Cameron, Naomi, and Natalya were chased out of the ring. I was loving teaming with Tamina and AJ because they were such great mentors and knew so much about the business. They had given me more guidance about how to get the crowd interested in the match and just little things to do that would make the match go more smoothly. Everything they told me made sense and worked in ring, so it was great to just be around them and absorb the knowledge.  
>After I got backstage, I took a quick shower, then decided to go find Roman. We weren't traveling anywhere tonight, because we were flying back to Orlando in the morning. I wanted to talk about plans for our days off, because we would finally get two whole days off and alone. All I wanted to do was go to Disney, hoping he would want to go too. After ten minutes of searching for him, I couldn't find him anywhere. I called him and it went straight to voicemail. I knew he was done wrestling for the night, so I became worried.<br>Every time I asked someone if they had seen him, they just shrugged and said not recently. I had gone from worried to annoyed quickly. I knocked on the guy's locker room and was face to face with Ryan for the first time since the huge fight.  
>"What?" was all he said.<br>"Um… Is Roman in here?" I tried to cover the shakiness in my voice.  
>"Nope." The door was slammed in my face.<br>I continued walking around backstage, checking everywhere. I called, got voicemail. Text him, no reply. I was beyond frustrated at this point. Emma had just finished her segment with Santino and was walking backstage when I grabbed her arm. "Have you seen Roman?" I asked, annoyance filling my voice.  
>"No, Santino have you?" Santino shook his head no, "Shit, let's go find him," Emma said.<br>We checked every closet, bathroom, dressing room, office, etc. backstage. "Emma, let's go over there and check it out," I pointed to the section behind the makeup station.  
>The first thing I saw was bright red hair, obviously being Eva Marie leaning against the wall, then I saw the cameras. I scanned around the room and then I saw it. <em>Roman. Summer. Making out. Touching each other everywhere. <em>Then I saw Nikki nudge Brie and point towards me, smirking. Tears began stinging my eyes. Summer was supposed to be my friend. How could she do that to me? Summer kept fidgeting with Roman's ring gear vest, then I heard her say, "Let's go finish this at the hotel," grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the door they were near, the cameras following them.  
>"Let's get out of here," Emma said, placing her hand on my back, turning us away from the scene. We walked back to the diva's locker room to retrieve our stuff. Normally we aren't allowed to leave the arena until the taping is over, but I needed to get out of here immediately.<br>_Dad, Emma is driving me to the hotel right now. Think I caught a virus. Puked twice after match. Don't want to get everyone else sick. Sorry. _ I clicked send on the text to my dad and grabbed my bags and went to the car. We weaved our way in between the rental cars in the parking lot, trying to find our red Ford rental. Roman and Seth were supposed to ride with us, but there was no way in hell I was allowing that to happen now. Emma began driving and I took her phone and text Seth.  
><em>Sorry we left the arena already. You and Roman have to find another ride.<em> Was all I sent.  
>The phone almost instantly had a reply from Seth and all it said was <em>?<em>  
>I replied <em>will talk later. <em>And put Emma's phone on do not disturb mode. She knew I was texting him, so it wasn't me being a bitch.  
>"Do you wanna stop somewhere quickly? I'll run in and get you whatever if you don't feel like going in." Emma asked me. We were passing fast food places, supermarkets, but nothing was appealing to me.<br>"No, thank you though. You can stop though, if you're hungry," I replied dully, staring out the window. I couldn't get the image out of my head. Why would Summer do that? She was one of my closest friends.  
>Emma took the next exit and went through a Wendy's drive-thru. She ordered me an order of French fries, even though I said I didn't want anything. We drove back to the hotel in silence.<br>As soon as we checked in, I got on my laptop, seeing if there were any flights out of Indianapolis to Orlando tonight. Sadly they were all booked. I knew my ticket for tomorrow's plane ride was seated right next to Roman, so I was definitely not going.  
>"Em! Know what we should do?"<br>"Hmm?" she was obviously only half paying attention to me.  
>"We should fly somewhere else. Let's not go back to Orlando tomorrow! Let's go to Vegas… no wait I'm not 21… How about LA? We could search for Bradley Cooper! We could go to Disneyland out there in California! We could go anywhere in the world!"<br>"Aubree… I know right now you're really upset, but maybe it's not the best idea. Go back to your place, get some rest, talk to him. I know that's not what you wanna hear, but it's for the best."  
>I heard what she was saying. She was right. I didn't wanna hear that. Why was she telling me to talk it out with him? She was supposed to be on my side. "So, am I getting one ticket or two?" I asked her, already having a flight from Indianapolis to LAX pulled up.<br>She sighed loudly, "Two."

We landed in Los Angeles at 12:30 and when I turned my phone on it had 27 missed calls and 59 texts. Most of them from Roman, some from my dad. I deleted Roman's texts without reading them, which left 4 texts from my dad. They asked where I was, why I wasn't at the airport, if I was really sick, and if I was okay. I replied back that I was fine and I would talk to him later.  
>Emma showed me her phone. Seth blew her phone up with questions about where she was and why she didn't meet him at the airport this morning. I didn't want her to ruin a possible relationship with him because of me, so I told her to tell him she was sorry and that she was taking a girl weekend.<br>We spent our day in LA sight-seeing and shopping. We were spotted by fans a few times, but luckily people were too occupied searching for Miley and Justin Bieber. We strolled up and down the streets, in and out of stores, shopping and gossiping, trying to keep my mind off of Roman. My phone kept vibrating in my pocket, but I didn't even look at it, knowing it was Roman.  
>Emma and I finally sat down at a restaurant for dinner in the evening. I left my phone away while she played on hers. Her jaw dropped and eyes got big.<br>"Emma, what is it?"  
>"Four hours ago Nikki tweeted, <em>karma's a you-know-what ;) xoxo N #totaldivas #itgotreal<em>"  
>Infuriated I grabbed the phone out of her hands and read the post over and over. I went to Summer's twitter and saw that she retweeted it, then replied. She posted <em>what can I say? I love bad boys ;) #totaldivas.<em>  
>I felt my throat tightening and my eyes burning again. "Em, can we just leave?" A tear spilled over and ran down my cheek.<br>"Yeah, come on." We paid the bill and left the restaurant and went back to our hotel.


	11. Chapter 11- Just Need Time

Luckily for me, I was not on the same circuit for the weekend as Roman. I had thought about asking for the weekend off, but I decided it would not be a smart career move. I had just started having matches and I didn't want to ruin any possible future plans. Emma was with me, which I was happy about. Roman had continued to call and text me, but I couldn't bring myself to answer. I knew he had been having Seth ask Emma, but she wouldn't talk to him about me.  
>Emma and I flew out of Los Angeles Friday morning and flew to Dallas, Texas. I knew the other house show circuit was in Alabama, so I would have until at least Sunday at the pay-per-view before I saw Roman. I knew there was going to be a huge altercation there, which worried me. The last time there was a blowout at work, I wasn't used on television for over a month. <p>

Friday and Saturday flew by, I got to team with AJ and Tamina both nights, facing Nikki, Brie and Natalya. AJ and Tamina would not tag me into the ring while Nikki was in, obviously knowing about all the issues between us. Lately, I had been wrestling with more aggression and ruthlessness, which got noticed by the fans. I felt like I was beginning to make a major impact on the diva's division. I was seeing more signs for me and I was getting a great reaction from the crowd. One night I was going through my Twitter mentions and saw people had started calling me "The Queen of Mean". I thought it was cool that the fans had already made such a connection with me, even more so than the connection from NXT.  
>Nikki got the pin-fall win over AJ to end the match both nights. After the matches, Tamina would pick AJ up and carry her backstage over her shoulder, while I would carry out AJ's title belt. Holding it and looking at the crowd lit a fire in me to get to the position I could be the champion. I hoped I would be able to win it off AJ, to be able to be the one who finally broke her championship reign, although it was unlikely I would get it that soon. Right now I was just enjoying the stable of AJ, Tamina, and I.<p>

When I woke up Sunday morning I was feeling sick and nauseated and I didn't want to get out of bed.  
>"Aubree, let's go we have to work out," Emma grabbed my arm, trying to drag me out of bed.<br>"I don't wanna go!" I whined. She kept pulling. "We might run into _him,"_ I added emphasis on the word him.  
>"Well you're going to see him at some point today, so you might as well deal with it."<br>"Emma no! I'm not going to the gym!" I yelled at her. I didn't mean to have my voice sound so harsh, but I couldn't help it. I was so stressed about tonight, I didn't want to think of seeing him, or even leaving the hotel today.  
>"Fuck you too, then," Emma said, grabbing her belongings and leaving for the gym.<br>Once she was gone, I made sure every single lock on the door was latched, just in case a crazy murderer, or Roman, tried getting in the room. I laid back on my bed, dreading today. I knew I had to go to the arena because I was going to the ring with AJ and Tamina for AJ's title defense on the pay-per-view, but I wished that I didn't have to see Roman.

I stared at the arena for ten minutes before taking my seatbelt off and getting out of the car. I felt like my heart was going to explode in my chest. I saw fans lined up against the fence and Emma nudged me, "Are you ready yet?" She sounded annoyed. I nodded and got out. We walked to the trunk of the car and got our suitcases. We took pictures with fans before entering the back door of the arena. I saw the usual rush of people running around the backstage areas. I scanned the room, looking for Roman, when I didn't see him I hurriedly sped-walked to the locker room.  
>Emma and I were the last ones there. Everyone got extremely quiet as we walked to the open part of the bench. Emma said hi to people, but I kept my head down. I knew everybody knew. Summer was sitting next to Nikki on the bench. I set my stuff down and left the locker room. I found a small janitors closet two doors down. I turned on the light, locked the door, and began to weep. My sobs were uncontrollable and tears streamed down my face. I muffled the sound by biting my shirt, I didn't want anyone finding me.<br>I wasted over an hour and a half in that closet crying. I knew I needed to leave to get ready, but every time I stood up, I felt weaker than before and cried more. I finally wiped all my tears away and composed myself. I slowly left the closet, making sure I wasn't seen, then went to the makeup station.  
>Walking down the hallway I ran into Justin Gabriel, "Damn, Aubree, what happened to you?" he said. I could tell by his voice, he genuinely had no idea about Roman.<br>"Oh, uh… I… Sick. Yup, I'm sick," I said. Damn, I was bad at lying.  
>"I know we don't know each other that well… But if you want to talk to someone, I'm around, usually not doing much," he chuckled slightly, "No judgment here."<br>I thanked him and continued walking to the makeup station. When I got there I saw Emma sitting there, eyes closed.  
>The makeup artist glanced at me, "Holy hell, Aubree. Have you slept lately?" she questioned.<br>"Not much," I told her.  
>She finished Emma's makeup and sat me down in the chair. "Oh boy, we have some work to do." <em>Wow, thanks. Reaaaal confidence booster,<em> I thought to myself. She handed me a bottle of eye-drops, "Three in each eye. The redness will fade. We are on HDTV tonight," she laughed, I'm not sure why. I didn't think it was funny.  
>She did my makeup quickly, but the puffiness in my eyes was mostly covered by a load of makeup.<br>"Where the fuck were you?" Emma asked me as soon as we walked away.  
>"I needed time by myself."<br>"Aubree, I love you but you need to get your shit together. We are at work. You need to be professional."  
>I stared at her astonished for a minute. "Excuse me? I am being professional. I am avoiding an issue. AVOIDING IT. It would be unprofessional if I was around him and we got into a fight. I am avoiding the people that are a part of this, okay. Sorry if you think that's unprofessional," I started walking away from her, but I heard her footsteps following me.<br>"Listen, I talked to Seth and-" she started before I cut her off.  
>"You talked to Seth? About me? Save it Emma. I know you're going to take his side just fucking because you're obsessed with him."<br>I knew that was harsh, I knew I didn't mean what I said, but I was so irritated with everyone right now, I didn't want to hear anyone's opinions that weren't the same as mine.  
>"I'm not obsessed with him. But maybe, just maybe, you should think about talking to Roman. That's all I'm saying." She turned and walked the opposite way.<br>I felt embarrassed. I just said horrible things to the one person that was there for me. I wanted to apologize, but for some reason my feet felt glued to where I was standing. I mentally kept telling myself to follow her and apologize, but I couldn't. I didn't move.  
>I stared at the floor while leaning against the wall when I checked the time. It was 7:00 and I decided I needed to get ready because AJ's match was second on the card. When I began walking down the hall, I looked up and saw Roman walking towards me. <em>Shit shit mother fucking shit<em> I thought to myself. I couldn't turn around and go the other way, I knew he'd follow.  
>"Aubree…" he approached me with caution, his voice soft. He sounded so hurt, I felt a pain in my chest. <em>Aubree do not feel bad for him. He's a cheating asshole,<em> I kept telling myself.  
>"I don't have time for this," I tried maneuvering around him, but his long limbs made it easy to trap me.<br>"Aubree, we need to fucking talk," now he sounded annoyed.  
>"I don't need to talk to you, get the fuck away from me."<br>"Just let me explain what happened!" He raised his voice at me.  
>"I saw all there was to see. I don't need a watered down version from you," I shoved him and ducked past him.<br>I felt his strong hands grab my forearm, "Aubree, it meant nothing. It was for Total Divas,"  
>"I don't care what it was for, Roman. You kissed Summer. You left with her. It's done."<br>"I didn't leave with her, we walked to the car with the cameras following us, they called cut and it was over. It was for a storyline on the show," He explained it, but to me it made no sense.  
>"There are fifty other superstars they could've, SHOULD'VE used. Why would they pick someone that has a girlfriend? Roman, you're making no sense. Leave me alone, I need to get ready," I tried walking away again.<br>"Listen, all I know is that the production team for Total Divas came up to me and told me Vince wanted to use me. I don't know why, but I wasn't questioning the boss. Aubree, please, I love you. This week has been hell without you,"  
>"Good," was all I said, before shoving past him for the last time and walking to the locker room.<p>

I couldn't focus the rest of the night. Nikki was finally getting her shot for the Diva's Championship on the pay-per-view, but she wasn't set to win. The plan was for me to pull her feet out from under her when she was against the ropes and drag her out of the ring. Tamina and I would attack her, then Brie would rescue her. I was satisfied. AJ would keep her title, I would get my hands on Nikki, and I'd get to let some aggression out. As good as it felt to get my hands on Nikki, my heart wasn't in it and I just wanted it to end.

We eventually retreated backstage, after what seemed like we were out there for an hour and I saw Roman standing right outside gorilla.

"Seriously, stop following me," I pushed him backwards.

"Aubree, please," he begged.

I pushed him again. "Nope."

He grabbed my arm, like he did earlier. "Aubree, seriously just fucking listen to me," his voice was annoyed. I could tell he was losing his patience.

"Leave. Me. Alone." I was just trying to get my point across, yet he was squeezing my forearm harder now. I winced in pain, but he didn't let up.

"Aubree, baby girl, I love you. You have to believe me. I promise you, I only went along with it because the producers said Vince wanted me to."

"Ugh," I wanted to believe him, but at the same time I wanted to punch him in the face. "Roman… Please just give me time. I just need time," I said sadly, then just walked.


	12. Chapter 12- Justin

A month had passed and I hadn't talked to Roman. They say time heals all wounds, but it hasn't in my case. Every time I pass him backstage, my heart sinks. I love him, but I find it hard to trust him again. Luckily for me, I was still involved with AJ and Tamina on screen and during house shows. I'd been traveling with AJ mostly, because Seth and Emma had started traveling with each other more and more. Emma and Seth were now dating and I couldn't be happier for them.

I had been wanting to talk to Roman, but I couldn't. Every time I prepared myself to, I would wimp out before I could. I hated that it was so hard for me to trust people, but I had been used and hurt too many times before.

Roman had finally stopped trying to start a conversation first. For the first two weeks, every time he saw me he would try to make small talk. I would give him short answers, he eventually got the hint that I needed more space.

On a Monday, Summer approached me in the locker room. I did not feel like dealing with her, but she was being persistent.

"Aubree, I'm so sorry for what I did. It wasn't right. I shouldn't have gone along with ." I heard the locker room door open, but I ignored it.

"No shit, Summer. It's been over a fucking month and you are _just now_ apologizing? I honestly considered you one of my best friends and you pull this? I'm furious at you and personally want nothing to do with you," I said, trying to control my anger.

I went to walk away and she stopped me, "Why the hell are you mad at me? It was him instigating it."

"Fuck off," I tried shoving past her, but she blocked me in.

"Stop being a bitch. It isn't my fault I'm a blonde bombshell," she flipped her hair over her shoulder.

I pushed her back as hard as I could and she stumbled into the lockers. "Seriously Summer, you're a bitch. I can't believe I ever trusted you. You are dead to me," I watched as she rubbed the back of her head. I looked and finally noticed the camera crews zooming in on her sitting on the bench.

One of the men whispered something to her and before I knew it, Summer had shoved me to the ground and was yanking my hair. She was screeching and yelling at me, banging my head off the floor. I fought back, slapping her and flipping us so I was the one pulling her hair. The battle went back and forth for a few minutes, before Eva Marie came running in and pulled her off me. Eva was making sure Summer was okay, then they left. The cameras got a shot of me, then they left to follow them.

I was pissed. Completely pissed. Summer had completely changed since signing onto do Total Divas. She used to be my friend, but lately fame had gotten to her.

I left the locker room, still pissed, wanting to go talk to Roman. I found him quickly and dragged him into a closet. "Ready for that make-up sex yet?" he joked.

"Roman, no. This is serious. I need to know exactly what happened with Summer. From beginning to end."

Roman began explaining. He said one of the producers went to him directly and said Vince wanted him to be featured on the show since he was in line for a major push. Apparently Vince thought it would help the fans connect with him more.

"I can't see Vince caring that much about who is involved on Total Divas as a love interest, especially when he knows you have a girlfriend."

Roman shrugged, "Aubree, I seriously don't know. I'm sorry. I have to go," he pushed the door open and retreated back to the men's locker room.

I stood in shock, not knowing what to do. I went and sat in catering when I saw Stephanie getting a meal. It was now or never. I got up and followed her to the table. "Steph, can we talk?" I asked timidly. I knew her basically my whole life, but I still got nervous around her.

"Absolutely, dear. Sit, sit," she said, cheerfully.

"Okay, I don't want to come across as unprofessional or anything, but did Vince want Roman on Total Divas as a love interest for Summer?" She looked puzzled. I explained everything to her the way Roman had explained it.

"Oh, no," she sounded worried. "Vince doesn't really get involved with that stuff. He was involved with picking the divas, but not everything that goes on for episodes."

I was getting angrier about what had happened. "I bet Nikki had something to do with it," I didn't mean to say it out loud, but it slipped.

Stephanie looked concerned, "I don't think she would do that, Aubree, honestly."

"I wouldn't put it past her. I saw how she was looking at me when it happened. She hates me."

"I'll go to the producers, okay?" I nodded and let Stephanie finish her meal in peace.

Stephanie came to me with the information that it was Nikki who started the storyline idea. She lied to the producers about having Vince's approval and Nikki would be punished. I was still pissed. Stephanie also informed me that since the whole thing played out so well on film, they would be using it. I wasn't happy about that, but there was nothing I could do.

After talking to Stephanie, I knew I had to go to Roman. I searched the halls up and down but I couldn't find him anywhere. I paced around backstage looking, getting impatient. I saw Eva and she approached me.

"Girl, I'm sorry about what happened earlier with Summer," her voice sounded insincere.

"Save it, you're just as involved as she is," I pushed past her.

"Wait, Aubree! You can't go in the locker room!" she yelled at me, grabbing at my arm.

I could tell now she was stalling, trying to hide something. I got out of her hold on my arm and pushed the door open. When I opened the door I saw three guys in all black holding cameras. Typical. Fucking Total Divas was filming. I squeezed between the crew members and saw Summer straddling Roman on the bench. He was on his back, not moving much. Summer was in her ring gear and trying to get Roman out of his. She was kissing all over his neck.

"SUMMER WHAT THE FUCK?" I yelled, storming across the room. I grabbed her by her shoulders and threw her down to the floor. Roman jumped up, fidgeting with his hair.

Summer smirked at me, then glanced at Roman. He didn't say anything, he just sat there. "I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF BOTH OF YOU!" I glared at Roman, tears burning my eyes. I ran out of the locker room and noticed one of the camera-men was following me. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" I yelled at the man following me. He didn't stop. I stormed to the bathroom and slammed the stall. I sat on the toilet and cried until the man left.

Things with Emma weren't the same since her and Seth began dating. I didn't have Roman anymore. Summer had completely betrayed me. AJ was always traveling with CM Punk and Tamina was always with Vickie Guerrero on the road. And all my other close friends were still in NXT. I felt so alone. I had nobody to travel with, workout with, or just talk to about everything. On my off days, I didn't leave my apartment. I laid in my bed for over half the day. I didn't even want to leave to go back to work.

The two days passed and I knew it was time to go to the airport to fly out for the house shows. I had nobody to travel with, so I decided I'd go alone. I rented the car by myself, got hotels by myself. After all the money I paid, I realized why it's so beneficial to have friends.

I had kept to myself the entire day leading up till the house show started. I was sitting in catering at the table in the corner, playing candy crush when I heard a familiar accent.

"Hey there, pretty girl. What're you doing all alone?" I looked up and saw Justin Gabriel standing over me, grinning.

"Being the loner that I am. It's easier that way," I mumbled.

He didn't hesitate before pulling a chair up, "You aren't a loner!"

"Oh, really? Look at all the friends I have," I said sarcastically.

"What happened anyway? With everything?"

"I don't feel like getting into it right now." He didn't say anything, he just stared.

"Fine, you can tell me all about it tonight on our way to Oregon." I gave him a confused look. "I'm not letting you travel alone. Friends don't let friends take road trips by themselves!"

The ride with Justin was way more fun than I expected. He sang every song on the radio at the top of his lungs. Conversation came so natural with him, it was refreshing.

"So, when do you plan on telling me what happened?" He said, during a commercial break on the radio.

"Never."

"You have to tell me! It's friend code."

"Do you have this friend code book handy? I would love to see where it explains that I have too."

He gave me a puppy-dog look, like I had hurt his feelings.

"Fine.. I'll tell you," I explained everything. From the beginning I told him about the cheating, lies about Total Divas, Nikki hating me for no reason, I am pretty sure I overwhelmed him with the story of my life.

He never interrupted me, he listened very intently. Every so often he would nod or say one word phrases. I finally finished the story and I couldn't help but crying. Justin rested his hand on my thigh and squeezed it. It was comforting. I closed my eyes, trying to stop the tears.

"He's not worth it, I promise," Justin finally said.

I couldn't speak. I didn't want to. He left his hand there, but focusing on the road. I felt comfortable around Justin, just like I used to with Roman. I knew this weekend would be better if I had Justin around.


	13. Chapter 13- What to Do?

**Wow, hey guys. I know, long time, no update.. Well I have no good explanation for it, other than I just quit writing. I honestly just lost all inspiration in writing, then was super busy this summer. Now I'm back at school and I'm finding myself with more free time (weird, I know. Summer should be the time to relax, not once I go back to school lol) but anyways, enough rambling from me. Here's chapter 13! Hope you enjoy :) **

Spending time with Justin was something that I was really enjoying. We had been hanging out and traveling together for the last month and a half. I felt extremely comfortable when I was with him, like how I felt when I first was getting involved with Roman.

Roman.

Seeing him at work had not gotten easier for me, even though it should've. I was no longer in a stable with AJ and Tamina, because Tamina got hurt. After AJ lost her title, she disappeared. She was getting married soon and had been working nonstop for well over a year. She deserved a long break. Since I was no longer in any real storyline, I would get to wrestle a dark match or Superstars match once every other week, if I was lucky. Justin was one of the only friends I had at work now, so it was extremely hard to deal with not working. Emma and I had drifted apart since she was with Seth. It wasn't because we fought. It was simply because she was always with Seth and Seth was always with Roman. Sometimes life just isn't fair.

My phone buzzed on the table at catering. _Vince's office when you get a chance._ My dad typed. I knew I had stayed out of trouble and hadn't had any matches, or any for that matter, recently, but you always get a little nervous when your boss wants to see you unexpectedly in the office. With budget cuts happening all around us, could I be the next one to lose my job? Would they fire me to my face? Make me do the walk of shame down the hall? I felt nauseous.

I slid out of the chair and walked to Vince's office with my head down, trying to avoid any eye contact with everyone. I pretended I was intensely looking at something on my phone, when I hit something, _hard._

"Whoa girl, why in such a hurry?" A deep voice chuckled. I became even more nauseous when I looked up and saw Roman grinning down at me.

I stammered a few syllables and couldn't make a coherent statement. _Damn Aubree, get it together!_ I yelled at myself in my head. I still couldn't find words, so I tried maneuvering around the big man. Bad mistake.

"Aubree, I asked where you were going." He stated. He sounded annoyed with me.

"It shouldn't matter to you, Roman."

He looked taken aback. "It was just a question, chill."

"No. Don't tell me to 'chill'. I'm not one of your bros, or friends, or anything!" I started feeling my blood pressure rise and my voice getting louder. "We haven't talked in over a month! You avoid me in the halls! You don't even try! So don't fucking ask where I'm going!"

"Okay…." He looked confused. Did I mention he is super cute when he's confused? Probably… "If you were heading to Vince's office I was going to give you a heads up on something…" his thoughts trailed off.

He caught my interest immediately. "A heads up for what?"

"I don't know. We're not really friends or anything, so I probably shouldn't tell you." With that, he walked away, leaving me stunned.

"Aubree, thank you for getting here so quick," Vince said when I sat down.

_Yeah, it would've been quicker if I wasn't interrupted._ I thought to myself, but instead, I sat and nodded.

"Listen, the producers of Total Divas have sat down with us and discussed the whole storyline with Summer and Roman." Vince started to explain. As soon as he said that sentence I let out a loud sigh. I knew I needed to get my attitude in check, but sometimes it was so hard.

"Aubree, drop the attitude," my dad's stern voice echoed from the other side of the room.

"Yes sir," I mumbled.

"So as I was saying," Vince continued, "As you know with this storyline playing out, it only makes sense to have you and Summer face off tonight." I nodded. "But, not only do they want you to in matches with Summer for the show, they also want to begin filming you as a secondary character on the show. You won't be a full time cast member, but you'll be shown in scenes and maybe if the fans connect with you on there, E! might change their minds and want you as a full time member."

That was a lot to take in. Me? Total Divas? I always wanted to be on a reality show, but not under these circumstances. I was being used because my boyfriend cheated on me with a cast member and they want to show how the reaction would play out. Although they had the footage from over a month ago when I initially caught them, I knew this time it would be a lot different. With this, they controlled my life. Controlled where I went, who I was with. I wasn't sure I was totally on board with this idea. I knew they would portray me in a negative light on the show, as the bitter ex. Was that something I was ready for?

Before I could finish the thoughts running through my head, Hunter interrupted me. "If this is any consolation for you, you'll be winning your match tonight against Summer."

As soon as I opened the door to leave Vince's office, I was greeted by a group of men in all black with cameras propped on their shoulders. I sighed. That didn't take long.

I tried to act natural, but it felt uncomfortable with someone walking in front of me and someone behind me at all times.

"Hey, what's all this?" I was greeted by Justin when I got back to catering.

"Well, I am now a part of Total Divas, kind of. It's complicated." I said. Before I knew it, a man appeared next to me without a camera. He started giving me orders, like talking louder, not mentioning the cameras, and told Justin to restart the scene. So much for reality shows being real, ha.

My match with Summer went really well. I worked as a babyface, since she is the heel of Total Divas. It sucks that due to Total Divas I would no longer be a heel. Once we got to gorilla position, we received praise and continued on our way.

Once we were out of the gorilla curtain, we were greeted by the camera crew and Roman.

"Alright ladies, Roman is here to congratulate Summer in front of Aubree, and rolling!" A crew member yelled and before I knew it Summer was wrapping her legs around Roman's waist and giggling. They kissed and he congratulated her. Tears burned my eyes. This couldn't be real life. All my life I thought about how cool it would be to be on a reality show. Moral of the story, be careful what you wish for.

Summer and Roman took off with one camera man. I didn't know where to go. I didn't know what to do. I felt tears forming in my eyes. I was going to throw up.

"Not here. Not right now." I felt arms around me and a familiar voice I grew up with comforting me, my dad. He shooed off the cameras and walked me to an empty room backstage.

Once we were alone, I broke down into a full out sob. "Dad, I hate this. This wasn't my dream. This wasn't what I worked so hard for." He sat intently listening to me. "Dad I… I don't want to be apart of this company anymore…"

"Aubree don't say that. I know this is what you've always wanted to do. Right now it's just hard. I know you loved Roman, but he wasn't the one."

"Yes he was! He was perfect! But Nikki saw an opportunity to ruin my life and guess what, it happened!"

"Do you want to talk to him?"

"No."

"Aubree, I know you…"

"Okay, maybe."

"Let me go get him…"

The ten minutes it took my dad to go get Roman felt like an eternity. But finally, the door opened and Roman walked in cockily.

"Oh, so NOW you want to talk?" His arrogance was bothering me.

"If you don't want to, then leave. It's not even worth it…" I felt my heart shatter all over again. I know I still had makeup smeared down my cheeks, so I didn't care if I started crying again. I actually didn't care about anything anymore.

"Aubs, it was a joke."

"Sure didn't sound like one," I snapped back. God, my attitude was so bad.

Then an awkward silence took over the room. We stared everywhere except at each other. Finally he sighed, "Aubree, I still love you. I want to be with you. But right now, it just can't happen."

My eyes started to fill with tears again. How can something so simple be so impossible? We were in love, but all these circumstances got in the way.

"Roman, why can't we just say fuck this reality show and move on?"

He looked embarrassed. "I signed a contract. I have to fulfill this season… At least."

The tears spilled over.

This couldn't be possible. I didn't even sign a damn contract! He leaned over and wiped my tears, but I swatted his hand away.

"Maybe this was a stupid idea. I knew better."

"Aubree…" His voice was weak and sad.

"Roman, I love you. Seeing you with Summer and kissing her is the worst thing. Now having these cameras around me makes it even worse. I am so alone here. I want to ask to get released from my contract."

"Absolutely not. Do not. Do not give up your dream. Do not. This is a temporary show. We can be together once we're done."

"No. It's impossible. Cause once we're done filming, then the show won't air for a little bit. Then after that, once the world sees these episodes, there is no way I can date you. It'll make me look like a fool."

Now his eyes were the ones getting watery. I didn't want him to cry. I hated seeing people cry. But once he started crying, I started crying again.

"Aubree, baby girl, you need to be happy. Whatever makes you happy is what you need to do. I love you." He kissed my cheek. I started crying harder.

Until we were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Without warning the door was yanked opened by Summer, followed by Nikki and then the camera men behind them.

Summer skipped over and grabbed Roman's arm, "Come on baby! We're leaving with Nikki and John to spend some time at John's ah-mazing house in Tampa!" He stood up and followed her.

"Hey, Aubree," Nikki said, "Here's a few tissues," She tossed some tissues on the table and sauntered off with Roman, Summer, and the camera men. Before the door closed, one of the camera men turned around and got a close up of the newest Total Diva, with tears streaming down her face.


	14. Chapter 14- Revenge

I made it through the TV tapings that week and was excited to have a nice, quiet relaxing few days at home. That was until my phone went off and I received a text saying I had to go to NXT for tapings. As irritated as I was, I was excited to see some of my old friends, hopefully they would be able to keep my mind off things. I repacked a duffle bag of gear and a change of clothes and made my way to Full Sail University. As I was opening my door, I was greeted by a familiar face.

"Not now," I said trying to push past him.

"If not now, then when? It's important. Trust me, you'll want to hear this," Seth Rollins said, blocking me in.

"Seth, I have to go. I need to get to NXT."

"What a coincidence! That's where I'm heading! I'll drive!" He said, grabbing my bag, taking off towards his car. I was extremely confused. What was going on?

The first 10 minutes of the car ride was silent. I stared straight ahead, not wanting to be in this situation, but I had no choice. Seth was tapping his thumbs on the steering wheel to the music and humming slightly. The silence was killing me. Luckily the song came to an end and Seth turned the music all the way off and looked at me.

"I know you probably don't want to hear this, but-"

"If I don't want to hear it, why are you going to say it?" I snapped quickly.

"Because it's important. Roman is in love with you." I reached forward to turn the volume up, not wanting to hear any more of this bullshit, but he swatted my hand away. "Aubree, stop. That boy is crazy about you."

"If he was so crazy about me he would've turned down the Total Divas thing. Did you ever think of that? Nope, probably not because the bleach in your hair dye probably damaged all your brain cells."

"Ouch. Okay, so maybe, just maybe I'm not the stupid one, maybe it's Roman. He is the one who took the role."

"Thank you Captain Obvious," I was so annoyed with him. Who was he trying to interfere with my life? If Roman wanted to be with me, he would be. That was that and nothing was going to change my mind.

"Aubree, please just listen to me. I'm his best friend, I know him better than anyone else."

"Okay, if you know him so well, has he always been such an asshole?"

"Yeah…No… A different kind of asshole! Aubree, you obviously fell for him for some reason," his voice was sympathetic.

"Yeah, because I'm an idiot." I said, then we rode the rest of the way in silence.

We arrived at Full Sail and Seth was immediately escorted off to the meet and greet section and I was left to go to the diva's locker room. I was welcomed warmly by all the girls, but especially Bayley and Charlotte. Everyone in the room talked to one another and I couldn't sense any jealousy. I found it odd that the place where everyone is competing to make it to the main roster had less tension and fighting in it than the main roster.

I caught a ride home with JoJo because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle riding with Seth again. During the ride I explained everything that had been happening with the Total Divas situation.

"I'm honestly happy I didn't do season two. I thought it would be fun, but it was more than I could handle. It would've been fun if I got to live my actual life on there, not just what they thought would get good ratings," she said with a sigh.

"At least you had a choice! I didn't even get a chance before they came in and started ruining my life."

"Maybe you just need to get a little revenge…" JoJo said with a mischievous smirk. I knew what I needed to do.

We had a pay-per-view that Sunday, so we would all be together in the arena. I went and got my makeup and hair done, even though I wasn't working on the show, but I had other plans in mind.

"Hey Aubree!" Justin said to me, in his dreamy accent, when I saw him in the hall.

"Hey!" he gave a hug, "how are you doing…with you know?"

I started giggling, "Oh, in about 5 minutes I'll be great!" He looked confused, so I elaborated, "I'm going to get my revenge on Nikki, finally!"

He shook his head disapprovingly, "I don't think that's a good idea…"

"No, it's a great idea!" I said excitedly.

"Nikki is one of the locker room leaders. I know you're already on her shit list for some reason, but if you do anything else to piss her off, it could get really bad for you around here."

"It honestly can't get any worse. I don't have anyone anymore," I could see him wince. I clearly hurt his feelings. "I'm sorry, you know what I meant!"

"Aubree, whatever you're planning on doing, it could potentially hurt your career, or more importantly you."

I could see where he was coming from, but I needed to get back at Nikki. It wasn't fair to be in this position because of her.

"I appreciate your concern, but this is something I just have to do…" I said to him before walking away.

I made my way to the back parking lot where all of our rental cars were. I weaved in between parking spots before finally reaching my destination. I looked up at the giant bus before me, getting a little bit nervous. _Maybe Justin was right. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this._ I shook those thoughts out of my head and pounded on the door. No answer. I knocked again, hoping someone answered. To my wish, the bus driver looking half asleep pushed it open and returned to his pillow and blanket on the bench, completely ignoring that I was even there. I assumed John wasn't in his room because the door wasn't open, which kind of foiled my plan a bit. But as Triple H once said, there's always a plan B.

I took a quick peek into the bedroom, empty. I returned to the front of the bus, taking a piece of paper and pen quickly scribbling a little note to John. _Can't wait til next time, you never leave me unsatisfied ;) xoxo—Lauren!_

Hopefully that was enough just to cause a rift in their relationship and I wouldn't be caught!

I slid off the bus quietly and went back inside the arena. Luckily nobody noticed my absence and I saw Nikki sitting in catering with Summer and Eva, with John nowhere in sight. _Perfect! _I noticed the camera crew surrounding us, so I knew something would happen.

"Aw look Summer, aren't you glad you aren't a flop like her?" She high fived Summer and Eva.

I thought about ignoring that comment, but I couldn't resist. "Aw look, it's Nikki, the girl whose boyfriend refuses to marry her because he likes his life just how it is," I heard superstars behind me gasp and laugh really loud.

Nikki stood up and charged me, "At least I can keep a boyfriend."

"Yeah, you might have him, but he isn't only with you," I knew treading in this water could be dangerous. John Cena was the Holy Grail backstage. He was held on a pedestal higher than anyone else, he was on another level.

I got shoved hard for that comment. I let out a little chuckle, antagonizing Nikki more. "Hey I mean, if he _really_ cared about you, he would've told you about the sex scene in his movie, but he clearly isn't worried about your opinion that much."

Another shove, this one harder than the last. I stumbled backwards a little bit, but laughed it off. She wasn't hurting me, but I knew I was hurting her.

"And honestly, who makes the 'love of their life' sign a damn contract before moving into their house, someone who doesn't see a bright future with that person." Behind me I heard Titus O'Neil's laugh roaring and he was banging on a table. It wasn't that funny, especially to Nikki.

"GET OUT OF HERE! GO! LEAVE NOW!" Nikki screamed and shoved me as hard as she could. I went flying backwards and was caught by someone. Everyone in catering went silent. I turned around and was face to face with none other than the man of the hour, John Cena.

The 5 seconds I was caught up in his arms felt like 3 years.

"LET HER GO JOHN! DON'T TOUCH THAT RAT!" Nikki continued screaming hysterically. Her voice kept cracking, she was on the verge of crying. It was sick how happy that made me, but it is what she deserved. I wanted her to suffer, just like I had.

John and I untangled ourselves and I quickly exited catering before anything else happened.

"Well there's the little shit-stirrer herself," Roman approached me, clapping slowly. I felt myself blushing, "That was quite a show we all just witnessed."

I half smiled at him.

"I kind of liked that fiery side we just saw," his voice lowered and he winked, wrapping me in his arms.

I wanted him to stop, but then I wanted him to hold me forever. Why did my emotions always have me so mixed up?!

"I'm going to be in soooo much trouble," I sighed.

"No you won't."

"Roman, I just messed with the King of WWE. I'm fucked."

He squeezed me even harder when I saw Justin walking toward us. Once he looked up and saw us hugging, he stopped dead in his tracks. He stood still for a few moments before sighing and turning around and walking the other way.

_Shit_, I thought to myself. _This can't be good._


	15. Chapter 15- Hell Week

**With this chapter I decided that I was going to use the wrestling names of the members of Total Divas instead of their real life names to keep it less confusing! Enjoy and please leave a review :) Thanks! **

I was almost immediately called into Vince's office and I knew I was fucked. Most of the roster and crew members witnessed the fight, which could either work in my favor, or the complete opposite. Roman had disappeared after the hug. I knew I should just cut him out of my life completely, but I couldn't. I hated myself for it, but for some reason he was all I wanted.

I slowly walked to the office, like a school child who got in trouble at school. Head down, avoiding everyone possible. What was I thinking getting involved with John and Nikki? He was the face of our company and she was the star of Total Divas. There was no way I was going to get off easy.

I entered the office and saw Nikki sitting by herself. She didn't acknowledge me at all when I sat down in the chair next to, she stared straight ahead. I glanced over and noticed her eyes were red and she had tear streaks down her cheeks. I felt accomplished. Finally after all this time I got her back. I finally broke Nikki Bella!

My happy feeling was quickly yanked from underneath me.

"ARE YOU TWO INSANE? YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PROFESSIONAL! I AM SO DAMN SICK AND TIRED OF MY PERFORMERS ACTING LIKE IDIOTS!" Vince screamed at us. I flinched, he was standing over us, his face turning red with each word he yelled out.

Neither one of us said anything.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS WITH EACH OTHER BUT YOU CHECK THE DRAMA AT THE DOOR!" He continued on, "HOW DO YOU THINK IT LOOKS TO THE EXTRAS WE HAVE WORKING BACKSTAGE TO SEE YOU TWO ACT SO CHILDISH? THIS COMPANY IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A HIGHER STANDARD THAN THAT! I SHOULD FIRE YOU BOTH ON THE SPOT!" He let those words hang in the air for moment. I looked at my feet, I couldn't look him in the eyes. He lowered his voice a little, "But I'm not going too.. That would be too easy. Instead, you both will travel together this week. Same car, same hotel room, same routines. I don't want to hear another word about it. And I promise you, if this ever happens again, you can both kiss your careers goodbye."

Everybody in the room remained silent. I looked at Nikki and saw tears falling down her cheeks. She got up and shuffled out of the room in silence. Once she was gone, I walked out, but was stopped by my dad.

"Aubree Elizabeth Laurinaitis.. I have never been more disappointed in you," he said.

"But dad you know how she is! That's not fair!"

"I raised you better than that!"

"Ha! _You_ raised me?" I scoffed, "You were never there dad! You were always on the road, and when you _were_ home you were always busy doing something else!"

"Do not even go there young lady," his tone changed. He seemed hurt by my comment.

But I didn't stop. "Don't go there? Why? Cause you 'did it for your family'? Or to 'give me a better life'? Did you ever even think of me?! Do you really think I was better off with mom living in that hell hole without you! I needed you but you weren't there!"

Now he was the one avoiding eye contact with me. "You know I love you. You're my princess, the best part of my life. I know your mom wasn't exactly worthy of mother of the year, but she tried-"

"Do not give me that bullshit. She was an alcoholic. If she really tried, she would've gone to rehab or done something to better herself. But no, she didn't try, she never tried!" At this point I was crying.

"If I could go back in time, I would change everything.. I really would," he said sympathetically.

"Yeah… Me too…" I said before walking away.

After the pay-per-view was over, I was gathering all my stuff when Nikki approached me. "You're driving, I'm sleeping," she said, throwing the keys at me.

One implied rule while traveling is when you're traveling, the other people in the car must stay awake for the driver. Clearly, Nikki forgot that while traveling bus-style with John.

"No, you're not. You're staying awake," I shot back quickly.

"Yeah, good luck trying to make that one happen," she said grabbing her bags and walking towards the car.

This was about to be the week from hell.

Nikki and I didn't talk at all on the drive that night, or even in the hotel. The tension in the room could've been cut with a butter knife.

She kept her distance and refused to look at me. She went to the gym before RAW and I was finally alone. I exhaled loudly and contemplated what to do with my time.

**Hey what are you doing? **I text Emma.

_Hitting the gym with Seth and Roman. Join us? _She replied almost immediately.

**No thanks, I'll have to pass on that one.** I missed hanging out with her, but it seemed like we lived in two different worlds now, even though we worked together.

I laid back down on my bed and clicked through the television stations. I was watching a rerun of Say Yes to The Dress when someone started banging on the door. I rolled out of bed and pulled the door open. I was shocked to see John standing there.

"Nikki isn't here, she just went to the gym," I told him, trying to push the door shut.

"Yeah I know. I came to see you," he squeezed in the door shutting it.

"John, no. This isn't right. You need to go. I have to travel with her all week, if she comes back and you're here, it's going to make things so much worse," I pleaded.

"Come on now, Lauren…"

My heart stopped for a split second. Shit, I was caught. He knew I was the one who left the note. I needed some sort of cover.

"Psh… Lauren? I'm not Lauren… I'm Aubree." _I'm also an idiot_, I wanted to add.

"I'm not dumb. I know you planted the note there. I also know why you did it. And on top of that, I want you to know this, I'm not mad at you and I will never tell Nicole."

"…But why?" I was dumbfounded. Here I was, the girl trying to ruin their relationship because of everything she put me through and he wasn't even mad at me!

"Because if I tell her, it'll make everything worse for you and her. I don't want you to get in any trouble, you're still so young and have a bright future in front of you, and I obviously don't want Nikki in any trouble. I'll talk to her and tell her that you two need to be civil with one another and see where that leads us, okay?"

I nodded.

"Good. Keep doing what you're doing, kid. You have a helluva lot of talent. I'd hate to see it go to waste. You're definitely diva champion material," he patted my arm. "Oh, and hopefully all this drama with Roman on Total Divas ends soon… I'm sick of hearing him bitch about how much he wants to be with you," he said and winked. "See you around, Lauren." He chuckled before walking away.

The ride after RAW to SmackDown with Nikki was a completely different scenario than the night before. She wasn't exactly friendly, but it was a start.

I could clearly tell John had his talk with her and she was taking it seriously. She asked me basic questions, trying to start conversation. She asked me about my time in NXT, what subject I liked in school, questions like that. I could tell she wasn't really interested but hey, at least she was trying.

To go along with her, I asked her about growing up as a twin, her career, her life with John, etc. When she started talking about John, everything changed. She was like a different person. I could tell she really, really loved him. It was kind of a shame he wouldn't marry her.

Backstage at SmackDown the next day, I was finally free from Nicole. She would be flying out of town with John immediately following the show. I couldn't be happier that I somehow survived this week.

I was walking down the hall to find Justin to talk to him about the incident that occurred Sunday, but I was interrupted by the camera crew with Summer and Roman. One of the crew members told them to stop moving, whispered something to Summer, than got the scene rolling again. I rolled my eyes as they approached me.

"Hey, girlie!" Summer exclaimed excitedly, all while hanging on Roman's arm.

"Hi Summer."

"I want to invite you to a party at my place Thursday! Are you game?"

"Why would I come to your party?" I shot back, instantly the cameras were put down.

"Aubree, you have to attend this party. It's part of the show." The producer stated matter-of-factly.

I rolled my eyes, "Fine, I'll be there."

"Wait! The cameras weren't ready! Reset and say that again… But try to sound a little more excited this time!" The producer yelled. God, I hated reality television.

Traveling with Nikki was not even close to how horrible this party was. Instead of it being a normal party with people that were actually friends with Summer, it was all Total Divas members. Summer told me the party started at 7, but when I got there at 7:10, it seemed as though everyone had been there for at least an hour. _What a great start to the night_, I thought to myself.

I scanned the room and saw Eva with Jonathon, Nikki, Brie and Bryan, Jon and Naomi, Vinny and Cameron, Summer and Roman, Rosa and Alex Riley, and Nattie and TJ. All the camera men were there too. I didn't even know Rosa was seeing Alex! Nikki was the only one alone, but I quickly found out John had an appearance and was unable to make it.

I awkwardly maneuvered myself around the living room to find an empty spot on the couch and sat off by myself. I also was the only diva under 21, which meant I couldn't legally drink. I wasn't much of a drinker anyway because my mom is an alcoholic, but everyone else was starting to get a nice buzz.

Summer declared that everyone must enter Brie Mode tonight, then tried handing me a glass of wine.

"No thanks, I don't drink," I told her pushing the glass away. Not only was I not old enough to drink, if I got busted with an underage drinking ticket, I could potentially get released.

"Oh come on!" she shoved it at me, "Don't be such a baby!"

I pushed the drink away again, "I said I don't drink."

"Oh come on! A little wine never killed anyone!" Nikki shouted across the room.

"I'm not even 21 you guys…"

"Oh, innocent little Aubree, come on! It's not a big deal! We've all drank underage before!" Summer leaned forward toward me, spilling a little bit on my outfit.

I was pissed, "Summer I said stop. I'm not going to drink!"

She looked annoyed and Nikki got up and pulled her back to the couch. Nikki, who was clearly intoxicated, brought a beer. "Maybe this will loosen you up."

"Guys, just leave her alone. Maybe she doesn't want to drink," Eva voiced from the corner. Eva Marie. Nikki's little lapdog. I was shocked she stood up for me.

Nikki rolled her eyes, but went and sat down.

I thought it was over, but then I heard Summer chuckle and say, "Yeah, that's cause her mommy is an alcoholic who didn't love her or her daddy."

My jaw hit the floor. I told Summer about my life when we were close friends in developmental. I couldn't believe she was airing my dirty laundry to all of our coworkers.

"Hey, that wasn't cool Summer. That was a low blow and you know it," Roman said, pulling his weight away from her.

"Babe, you know it was funny!" she said back to him.

"Not at all."

"Hey I mean, your dad traveled and was on the road all the time but that didn't make your mother have an affair and become an alcoholic, did it?" She smirked, glaring at me. Everybody in the room fell silent. They were all staring at me.

I felt my eyes stinging with tears. I couldn't believe she had sunk this low. I wanted to punch her, but instead I just got up and left without saying another word.


	16. Chapter 16- Talk is Cheap

**Hi guys! I know I have uploaded everyday this week, but I'm just really in the writing mood right now! Lol, I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far :) Don't forget to leave a review! :)**

I made it to my car before I broke down in a complete sob. I leaned my head against the steering wheel and cried so hard I could barely breathe. I was gasping for breath when I felt a knock on the passenger window. I chose to ignore it, because I didn't think I was going to be able to compose myself to talk to anyone. The tapping continued and I was annoyed, I looked up preparing to yell at whomever was there, but I saw someone completely unexpected there. Eva Marie. When I made eye contact with her, she opened the car door and sat down beside me.

"What do you want?" I snapped at her.

"Listen, I know we never really got off on the right foot… but what Summer just did, that was fucked up. Being on this show has completely changed her. The producers make her out to be the villain.. I hate to say it, but that's what fame does to people sometimes, which I'm sure you know, because that's common sense, and I know I'm rambling but right now I'm really nervous…" she trailed off.

"Why are you so nervous?"

"I'm not sure… You've been getting the shit end of thing since you came up to the main roster. I wanted to be friends with you, but Nikki…"

"Let me guess, Nikki forbid you to be my friend," I said annoyed.

Eva looked ashamed and nodded, "She said us Total Divas girls had to stick together. You know, she's a veteran, she's dating John, she has a lot more power than you think…I was on her bad side once, I didn't want to go back there…"

"I understand, I guess… I just don't get why she hates me so much."

"Cause you're good, Aubree. You're really, really good. She sees you as a threat. You're one of the top technical wrestlers and you had such a great NXT character, she's scared you're going to take her spot. Not to mention you're a lot younger than her. She feels like the more people they bring to the main roster, the faster she's going to get pushed out."

I listened to what Eva was saying intently. I still didn't understand why Nikki was so jealous. She was dating John for God's sake! Her spot was perfectly secure. "So why'd you follow me out here?" I asked her.

"Well, for starters, I was pissed about what Summer did and didn't want to be anywhere near her. Secondly, I was an alcoholic when I was younger, which is why I don't drink anymore. I figured I would come try and talk to you. I know what it's like, I've been there. Even though it's not exactly the same situation, I know what it's like dealing with addiction. And I know for sure, nobody deserves to be treated the way you have been lately."

Wow, Eva Marie had a sensitive side? And she was actually being nice to me without Nikki's permission? I was in shock.

"Thank you, Eva. I truly appreciate it," I said, meaning it.

"I don't want us to have bad blood… Do you think we could start over? I want to be your friend, if you'd like that?" She asked.

"Yes, I would like that."

We sat in silence for a few minutes before she pushed the door open and said, "Well I guess I should probably head back in there and get Jonathan so we can head home. Bye, Aubree!" she said, getting out and disappearing into the apartment complex.

…

I got back to my apartment, changed into an old volleyball hoodie from high school and oversized sweat pants. I laid down on my couch and started watching some of my old NXT matches. _Who was that girl?_ I thought to myself, watching my performances. I had so much drive and determination. I didn't feel like that same person. I felt like I was drowning in my own body, like all the drive and life had been sucked out of me. Watching these matches made me miss the way my life was before the main roster. But more importantly, before Roman Reigns.

I missed Emma and when we were both in NXT. We traveled to all of the shows together, we were inseparable. We spent every possible moment together. I was glad she was happy now with Seth, but sometimes I really need her.

I went through and watched my whole feud with Paige. I must admit, that was one of my favorite feuds I'd ever had. We had such great chemistry and we both were willing to push the boundaries. I was in the middle of one of our NXT Women's Championship matches when there was a knock on the door. I was planning on ignoring it, but it continued.

"Aubree open up!" a man's voice yelled from the outside. I knew the voice, it was Justin. What was he doing here?

I opened the door and saw him standing in front of me with a box of pizza, a grocery bag, and a stack of movies.

I was confused, "What are you doing here?"

"Well.. I heard you had a bit of a rough night... I hope you don't mind me coming over unexpectedly."

"How'd you find out?" I asked curiously.

"Jon. Him and Trin left the party and he called me. Said Summer verbally attacked you in front of everyone, then Eva told them that you were really upset."

"Great…" I went and sat back down.

"So…?" he followed me over to the couch. I took a piece of pizza out of the box and started eating.

"Ugh, I guess you can stay," I said jokingly shoving him. He laughed.

He handed me the grocery bag he had brought in. When I opened it I was shocked. Inside was an assortment of candy. Chocolate, Ring Pops, Twizzlers, every type of candy the store would have.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"Like I said, you had a rough night… I wasn't sure what kind of candy you liked the best, so I bought it all," he smiled.

"Wow… Justin, thank you.. That…That's one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me."

"So, for movies, I brought mostly chick flicks, but I also brought Nightmare on Elm Street, Horrible Bosses, Transformers, and Twilight… Just please don't ask why I own that one…" He chuckled then laid out all the movies in front of me. I debated on what to start with. I wasn't a fan of scary movies, so that wasn't going to be my first pick. I decided that since he was kind enough to do this for me, I wouldn't make him watch a chick flick first, so I picked Horrible Bosses.

We watched movie after movie after movie until I noticed the sun was beginning to rise. Had I really stayed up all night watching movies and eating candy with Justin? I couldn't believe that! It felt like we'd been sitting together for less than an hour, yet here the sun was rising.

"So… Since the sun is rising and it's daylight, do you want to watch Nightmare on Elm Street now?" he asked, chuckling softly.

Although I was scared, I nodded. I got up to put the movie in and when I sat back down, I cuddled up right next to him. If I had to watch this, he was at least going to protect me!

Half the movie I kept a blanket over my face, with Justin's arm around my shoulder holding me close to him. I felt so safe with him.

We finished that movie and I was relieved. I despised horror movies.

"Do you want to go get some breakfast?" he asked me, out of the blue.

"Yeah… I'd like that."

….

Getting back on the road after having two days off is always a struggle. Especially when you're running on hardly any sleep and have to fly across the country to Washington. I arrived at the airport and boarded my flight. Unfortunately I was in the middle seat between two strangers. I tried to make myself comfortable to fall asleep, but in this cramped area, it was nearly impossible.

I had my earphones on playing music and leaned back closing my eyes. I was nearly asleep when the woman beside me bumped into me when she got up to go to the bathroom. Highly annoyed, I leaned back again and tried to nap again.

That didn't happen.

I felt myself being shook out of my daydream and now I was severely pissed off. About to rip someone a new one, I saw Roman standing over me. "Move to the window seat," he said.

Without asking questions, I did. He took the middle seat.

"I paid that woman to switch me seats," he said.

_Great. Just great. Now I have to sit next to him for the rest of the flight._ I thought to myself.

"I can't even get a thank you?" he questioned, after I didn't say anything.

"Thanks for what? Getting me a window seat? Newsflash, I don't care," I snapped at him. Obviously I did care, I hated middle seats just like everyone else in the world, but I wasn't going to thank him for that.

"Damn, Sassy Aubree has returned…"

I rolled my eyes at his comment. "What do you want from me, Roman?"

"To talk…"

"Save it. I have nothing to say to you to be completely honest."

"Aubree…"

"Stop talking to me." I was trying to keep my voice down so we didn't get in trouble on the plane, but he was making it very difficult.

"I quit Total Divas," he said bluntly.

"You what?"

"Yep. After you left the party. I said it had gone on long enough. Enough was enough for me. I hated seeing how you were getting treated and being apart of that was not something I was proud of." He said, looking me in the eye the entire time.

"But your contract…"

"I said I would pay the fine to get out of my contract. It's not going to be a small fine, but I'd rather do that than fulfill my contract."

"That's interesting," I stated, trying to act uninterested.

"What's your problem?" he was annoyed with me now.

"You want me to act like everything is okay? Well everything's not okay! You never text me to see how I was after that party when you knew I was upset. You didn't even care."

"I cared.. I just… I'm not exactly the best at showing it."

"You had no problem showing how much you cared when we first got together! God, Roman, this isn't right! We were so good in the beginning, but now it's basically impossible for us to be together. At least not right now." I said, before putting my earphones back in and staring out the window for the rest of the flight.

….

Upon arriving in Washington, I met up with Emma to get some lunch and rent a car. Seth told her to travel with me this weekend after all the shit that had happened recently, so it felt good to finally have her back for the weekend.

"God, Aubree, I feel like it's been forever!" she said hugging me tightly.

"That's because it has been."

"I know, I'm sorry for that… but being with Seth is like something I've never experienced before. It's always an adventure. He is constantly surprising me with nice things, not even things that are expensive, which is what makes it even better! Like he'll just have a random bouquet of flowers delivered to my apartment without a notice, or he'll mail me a love letter. It's all so old fashioned and I am so in love! Aubree, I'm so in love!" she let out a sigh after that. I could tell she was genuinely happy. Don't get me wrong, I was happy for her, but also a little jealous too. When was I going to get that happiness?

"Wow, Em, I'm happy for you!" I said, trying to fake a smile.

"So, how about your love life?"

"Ha. What love life? It doesn't exist," I scoffed.

"Come on. You have Roman _and_ Justin dying to be with you," she said like it was something that should've been obvious.

"Roman is Roman. I don't know what to do about him anymore, but Justin is a really sweet guy."

"Roman is in love with you. I've spent so much time with him lately and all he ever does is talk about you!"  
>"Talk is cheap, Emma. Sometimes you need a little more than that…"<p> 


	17. Chapter 17- Forgiveness

After lunch with Emma, we decided to head straight to the arena. We didn't talk at all. Once we arrived, I put my stuff in the locker room and went out to the ring area where we rehearsed our matches and segments for the night. I wasn't on the card tonight, so I took a seat in the upper-level seats and watched. John was currently in the ring cutting a practice promo. I half listened while I sat back and scrolled through my Twitter feed. As I was reading through my mentions, and replying to some, I saw something that caught my eye. The Total Divas twitter had tagged me in a post about Justin. I clicked the link and read farther into it.

The article said, "Breaking News! After Roman was caught cheating on her with Summer Rae, Aubree rebounded to Justin Gabriel, former love interest of JoJo! But, did Justin feel the same? According to our sources, Justin got a little comfy in Tampa this weekend with actress-model Alayna Freeland! The two were spotted hand and hand at a hockey game this weekend and caught getting cozy in the stands! Check out the picture below! Poor Aubree, the girl can't catch a break with guys, can she? :(" I looked at the picture, there it was. The two of them cuddled together at the hockey game. Was this a sick joke? Why would Justin spend the night with me, then go out with another girl later the next night?

I put my phone in my pocket and turned my attention back to the ring. The divas working tonight were practicing for their match tonight. It was Brie and Nikki vs Nattie and Emma. All the other divas were surrounding the ring, then there was me all the way up here, alone.

I sat and watched the rest of rehearsals in silence. I kept zoning out from staring at the ring for too long, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Why was I putting myself through this? Ever since I hit the main roster my life had been on a downhill spiral.

I leaned my head on the back of the seat and closed my eyes. I was imagining I was somewhere far away from here. Somewhere like Australia, or maybe even Germany, all I knew was I wanted to be out of this arena right now. I probably looked like the biggest idiot on the roster.

"Aubree… Aubree, are you sleeping? You gotta wake up and head backstage… Rehearsals are over and the employees here are going to be coming and making sure everything is in place before the doors open…" Stephanie said, standing over me shaking my shoulders.

I opened my eyes and looked at her, but didn't say anything.

"Are you alright?" she asked. Hearing those words from her made me start crying.

"Not really, no…"

"Oh sweetie, come here…" She gave me a big hug, "What's the matter?" She sat down in the chair next to me.

"My whole life is what's the matter…"

"Now, now.." She patted my knee, "Do you know how many people would do anything to have the life you're living now? You're talented, living your dream and wrestling in front of millions of people. We all go through rough patches, it'll get better. I promise."

"Steph, I loved my life before the main roster. NXT was amazing, the friends I had in Florida were amazing, then I get called up here… Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful for that, but it was like I hit the main roster and everything got worse. Starting with RyBack, then Total Divas, and now with Justin. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I really, really loved Roman.. Then I start falling for Justin and he is this amazing guy, or so I thought he was…" I trailed off.

"I know you're not going to believe this, but I've had my fair share of heart break. Hunter cheated on me while we were dating too. I was devastated, we spent some time apart, but now we're married and have children together. You're not always going to have the easiest path, but you have to be able to rise above it all."

I listened to her intently, she was right.

"You have two options in life. You can give up, or fight like hell for what you want. Now that's in your hands. What do you want?"

"I just want to be happy…"  
>"Then be happy."<p>

….

After my talk with Stephanie I walked to the backstage area. Starting today, I was going to try to fix all the burned bridges I could. First order of business, as much as I didn't want to, was Nikki. I saw her standing with John off by themselves.

I approached them slowly, "Hey Nikki…" I spoke softly. She eyed me like I had 3 heads, "I was wondering if you were free to talk for a minute?"

I could tell she was going to have a witty comeback, but John nudged her, silently telling her she better talk to me. "Yeah, sure. What do you need?" She said, shining a fake smile at me.

"I was, uhm, just wondering if we could put the past behind us. I know we got off on a horrible start. I want to be able to be civil with you. I know a lot of stuff has happened, but if we both agree to move forward, I think we'd be able to get along better."

She nodded slowly, "Yeah, I mean, if you think you can put it behind us, I don't see why I can't." I looked up at John and he smiled at me. I knew Nikki and I wouldn't be the greatest friends of all time, but maybe we would be able to get along a little better in the future.

…

The next step was going to see Summer. This one was going to be a lot harder than Nikki. Summer was one of my best friends who completely betrayed me. I'm not sure I would ever be able to forgive and forget completely, but I wanted to be civil with her as well.

I pulled Summer aside from everyone, which she wasn't a fan of. Summer always wanted to be the center of attention and have everyone know everything that was going on at that moment. I got her alone though, which was a surprise.

"Alright listen, I'm trying to get a fresh start around here. As you clearly know, I didn't get off on the best foot around here…" I trailed off, seeing if she would say anything, but she didn't. "So even though I will never forgive you fully for what you have done to me, I would like us to be able to see each other at work without wanting to rip out each other's throats.."

"Aubree, I tried to tell you before, this whole charade was for the show.. I was never into Roman. I'm the villain of the show, I have to be hated. You know the real me!"

"I thought I did…"

"You do! I'm sorry for everything I've done, I really am. I'm getting paid a lot of money to be portrayed as the bitch… I wish you understood."

"I will never understand why you chose money over our friendship. You have humiliated me time after time. I pulled you aside so you didn't have to put on your 'villain' front in front of everyone, but you clearly aren't grasping that is okay to be a good person."

"That's not it at all!" she pleaded, "Aubree, I considered you one of my closest friends, honestly, but you have to understand that as part of my contract, I have to oblige with what the producers tell me to do."

"All I'm saying is that we will never be able to go back to how we used to be, but hopefully we'll be able to be around each other backstage without a catfight breaking out." I said before turning and walking away.

…

I decided next up would be going to Justin. I knew this one was going to be difficult, but it needed to be done. I needed answers from him about Alayna and what the truth was.

I found him hanging out with Tyson and pulled him aside, this wasn't something that needed to be addressed in front of an audience.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out as soon as we were alone.

That completely caught me off guard. I hadn't even had time to say anything yet.

"For what?"

"I'm an asshole. I know you saw the pictures. I am so sorry." He looked everywhere, except at me.

"The same day, Justin?! You went out with her the same fucking day as you stayed the night and then took me to breakfast? Who does that?!"

"An asshole. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm an idiot. I know we're not a couple, but it wasn't right of me."

"You're right… Seeing you with her, right after the night before we had, really hurt me, Justin.."

"I know. I really am sorry. But…"

"But what?"

"I'm kind of… seeing her now… More than friends.."

I felt like I had just got shot in the chest. "Oh," was all I could get out.

"I'm sorry, I should've told you. I wasn't dating her when I was staying with you, but after.."

"Yeah, I get it." I tried to walk away but he grabbed me.  
>"Aubs… I'm sorry."<p>

"Yeah, me too.." I shook myself out of his grip and walked away.

How was this possible? Did I miss my chance? How did this happen so fast? I thought he wanted to be with me? I was confused, hurt, everything.

….

Finally it was time for me to find the person who hurt me the worst.

Roman.

He was sitting with Seth and Emma in catering. Seeing him made me beyond nervous. Here was the man I loved before, but now I was confused on how I felt. Between him and Justin, I was torn. They were two completely different guys who made me feel two completely different ways.

"Hey.. Ro, can we talk?" I nodded toward the hall so he got the point I wanted to be alone with him.

He stood up, "yeah, sure." Seth was grinning at him, raising his eyebrows.

We found an empty storage closet down the hall, away from the noise.

"Oh, you're bringing me in here to seduce me aren't you?" he asked, winking at me.

I slapped his arm, "shut up!"

He chuckled and leaned against the door, "So, why was I brought into this small, creepy closet?"

I let out a sigh, "I'm trying to fix all the burned bridges I have. I was the uber-bitch on the plane. I'm really sorry for that… I really appreciate you getting the window seat for me, even though I didn't want to admit it then.."

"Wait, let me get this straight… I completely fucked up, and you're the one apologizing for being a bitch to me…?" he asked laughing.

"This is serious!" I whined.

"I know… I'm just, surprised, I guess."  
>"You're not the only one…"<p>

He stepped closer to me, "You will never know how sorry I am for what I did. I wish I could take everything back and we could rewind to the first time I ever met you. I would do anything for that."

I looked at the floor, "I would too.. but we can't, can we?"

"If you just give me one more chance, Aubree, I promise, everything, and I mean everything, will be different," he picked my chin up to make me look at him, then grabbed my hands, "Aubree Elizabeth Laurinaitis, please give me another chance, I will do everything I can to prove to you that I want to be with you. I love you, I've never stopped loving you."

I felt tears burning my eyes. "I love you too.."

"Can we please try to make this work again?" he asked, I nodded.

Roman leaned down and kissed me. It turned passionate quickly.

He turned us around and shoved me against the door. "I love you" he kept whispering as he kissed across my jaw and down my neck. He began pulling my shirt off, then started working on my pants. I had his shirt off by now, clawing at his back. I pushed his pants and boxers down. We started getting intimate, but then, we were interrupted by the fire alarm in the arena…


	18. Chapter 18- Pop!

Roman and I quickly put our clothes on and opened the closet door. We saw our coworkers running around frantically screaming.

"Aubree, run," Roman said sternly. I was scared. I stood frozen for a second. "Aubree, I said run!" he said again.

_Pop! Pop! Pop!_

Without hesitation Roman took off in a dead sprint down the hall, leaving me behind. I panicked, hearing the _pop! Pop! Pop!_ again, I freaked out. They were gun shots. I took off running the opposite direction, not sure what direction these sounds were coming from. Everybody was running, screaming. The _pops _were getting more frequent, and I ran even faster. Everything was a blur. Everyone was shoving each other, trying to get past one another to safety.

I kept running, trying to find an escape route. I tried following people in front of me, but everybody was running different directions. I kept pushing forward, hearing the _pops!_ behind me.

I finally made it to the parking lot. I saw other wrestlers out there, along with crew members. The building was surrounded by police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, and news vans. It suddenly hit me what just happened. We were just under attack.

I scanned the crowd surrounding me looking for Roman. I didn't see him anywhere. I began to panic. I kept looking around for someone I was close too, which was a rarity these days.

Everybody around was crying. The police officers were giving statement to the news anchors. I wanted to get far away from here, but I knew they'd be taking a head count once everything got settled down.

A charter bus pulled up and we were escorted on. I looked around. Most of the roster was aboard, many crying. Hunter, Stephanie, and Vince were sitting together, Vince not saying anything, showing no emotion. He was just staring straight ahead. Hunter was consoling Stephanie, who was an emotional mess. I made my way to the back in silence, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone. I sat down in a row by myself. I stared out the window, silently urging Roman to come out. I was startled when I felt someone sit down next to me and start hugging me. Emma.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she exclaimed.

Seeing her, perfectly okay, I felt a little at ease. "Where's Seth?"

"He got on the other bus.. I saw you boarding this one alone. He's with Dean there. He's okay."

"Emma.. I hate to interrupt but can you let me take a seat there? I need to talk to Aubree for a minute," we were interrupted by Vince. I knew this wasn't going to be good.

Emma stood up cautiously, moving forward a few rows.

Vince sat down beside me, taking a deep breath in, then exhaling slowly.

"Vince… What's wrong?" I urged him to tell me.. I was panicking.

"Aubree.. Your father… He was shot…"

Tears spilled out of my eyes. This couldn't be happening.

"I'm so sorry. He is being transported to a local hospital now. He will be going into immediate surgery." His voice was monotone.

I sat in silence. I couldn't find words to say.

"He'll be okay, Aubree," he patted my knee, before getting up and walking to the front of the bus.

The bus started moving. We were being transported to a local church. The bus ride was relatively quiet, with the exception of the sounds of sniffling.

…

We pulled up to the church and Vince stood up to address us.

"Everyone, as we know, we have dealt with a great tragedy today. I am going to be filming a quick video inside to let the fans know, if they don't already, what has taken place here today. We will not be having a show tonight, or a SmackDown taping tomorrow. Something like this has never happened before. We will be showing old tapings of some sort, that has not been decided yet, but I want all of you to go inside and seek shelter for a bit. After a while, we will be setting you up in a hotel for the evening, if you'd like to stay. We will be changing cities to relieve some of the stress of staying here for you guys. Please do not send out any tweets or anything about the situation until we know exactly the outcome of today," he stood silent for a minute before exiting the bus.

Nobody moved or said a word until Hunter stood up and gestured for us to follow him off the bus. Slowly and silently we all followed him in a single-file line. The other bus passengers were walking off after Vince talked to them too. I stood outside watching the faces of those people. I waited for Roman, but he wasn't there.

I approached Hunter, "Please tell me there's another bus coming!"

"No dear, I'm sorry… Only those two… Who are you looking for?"

"Roman! Where is Roman?!" I yelled at him.

"Shh, shh… Aubs, calm down. I'm sure he's alright," his voice wasn't convincing.

"Yeah? Alright just like my dad, alright? I need to know he's okay!" Tears were streaming down my face at this point.

Hunter hugged me, "He'll turn up, I promise."

…

I walked into the church, uneasy about who I was going to see wasn't there.

When I walked in I saw Justin, he saw me at the same time. He ran over and gave me a hug. "Aubree, I am so sorry about being an asshole. I'm so glad you're okay!"

I refused to let go of his embrace. I squeezed him harder than anyone I've ever hugged before. I held onto him like he was the last person I was ever going to see. My tears streamed his shirt, but I didn't care.

He continued comforting me, patting down my hair while I cried. We finally split from our embrace and we went and sat down alone.

"My dad got shot and Roman is nowhere to be found," I blurted out.

"Oh my God, I had no idea," he hugged me again.

"What if they die? What am I going to do?" I sobbed.

"They're fighters, they'll pull out of this."

…

A few hours later, I was approached again by Vince. They had a cab waiting for me to take me to the hospital to see my dad. He was out of surgery now, in recovery. He was going to be alright.

"What about Roman? Where is he at?"

Vince looked down.

"No… Please don't say it…" I pleaded.

"Aubree.. He was shot as well."

Justin wrapped his arm around me, while I collapsed into him. How was it possible? I was just with him. If we would've stayed in that damn closet, he would be okay. We should've hid out in there. I should've stayed with him. I should've followed him.

"He was life-flighted from one hospital, over to another, so he won't be where your dad is."

"Can Justin come with me?" I asked through tears.

"Of course."

….

The cab ride to the hospital was silent. I had nothing to say. I was mad at myself for not making Roman stay in the closet with me. I was mad that he was dying and there was nothing I could do about it. I was just mad.

We pulled up to the hospital and it was surrounded by news vans.

"Don't make any comment," Justin coached me, "Keep your head down and keep walking." He pushed the door open and we were swarmed by reporters. Justin led me through the hospital hand-in-hand.

We found my father on the 7th floor, the surgical floor.

"There's my little angel, I'm so glad you're okay!" My dad said, his voice raspier than usual. Seeing him made me start sobbing all over again. I hugged him as he laid in the bed.

"Daddy!" I sobbed onto him. He grimaced and I realized I must've hit his wound.

Justin stood in the corner, awkwardly and silently.

"Justin Gabriel," my dad extended his hand, "I want to thank you for taking care of my girl."

"Sir, I really didn't… I've just been with her since the church…"  
>"Well, I know you've been a great friend to her, son. I appreciate that. Maybe one day I'll be giving her away to you at the alter."<p>

I was so embarrassed, but Justin didn't seem to mind. He chuckled, but didn't say anything back. Maybe he wasn't such an asshole after all.

…


	19. Chapter 19- The Aftermath

My dad was generally funny guy, but when he was doped up on pain medication, he was even funnier. He was telling us story after story, joke after joke. Justin and I were in tears laughing. It was hard to believe that he had just been shot and rushed to the hospital a few hours earlier.

"So, when can I expect some grandchildren?" my dad asked, looking between Justin and I.

Nobody said anything.

"Come on, you guys are totally meant to be!" he started laughing again.

"Alright, uhm, I think it is time for us to go…" I said standing up.

"Oh, come on Aubree! Don't be such a sour-puss!" my dad said.

"Aubs, it's fine.. We can stay." Justin said pulling my hand back.

"No, I really think we should go."

"Aubree, please don't leave. I'm sorry… I'll stop with the grandchildren jokes, I'm sorry." After he apologized, I felt a little bit better. Justin knew he had high doses of pain killers in him and he had no idea what he was saying. I knew I shouldn't have been so hard on him at the time, but it was embarrassing. Plus, Justin wasn't even my boyfriend.

We continued talking for a while, mostly small talk, nothing about the shooting. I didn't want to bring it up and risk upsetting my dad, so I avoided the subject.

"Aubree… Do you think you would call your mom for me? Let her know what happened? Please?" My dad asked. I hadn't talked to my mom in months. I was nervous, but since he asked, I would.

I excused myself into the hallway, walking far enough away from the room so they couldn't hear, and hit call. The phone rang and rang, each ring making my heart race faster than the last.

Finally, the ringing stopped.

"What?" was all she said.

"Uh, mom?" I said slowly.

"Yeah, what do you want?" I could tell she was drinking. She could get pretty nasty when she was drinking.

"Well, I don't know if you heard, but there was a shooting at work today.. I'm fine. But dad, well, dad was shot and he's in the hospital. He wanted me to call you…" I trailed off.

She was silent for a minute, I could hear her pouring more of whatever her drink of choice was into a glass. "Why would I care? I don't know why he would want me to know."

I rolled my eyes, "Mom, I don't know. He asked me to call you. I'm just doing what he wanted."

"Well I'm not coming there if that's what you wanted."

"I didn't." I was getting pissed. How was it she could have absolutely no sympathy at a time like this?

I heard her take a big drink of her drink, then sigh, "Please don't call this number anymore." And she hung up.

I stood there blankly, leaning against the hospital wall. Had she really just been that heartless? It made me hate her even more. She didn't have to worry about me ever calling her again, because I wouldn't. I would never bother her again. As far as I was concerned, she was dead to me. I wanted nothing to do with her for the rest of my life.

I composed myself and walked back into the hospital room. My dad sat up, looking at me eagerly.

"What did she say?" He asked.

I looked around nervously, "She didn't answer." I lied. I wish I would've told him the truth, but I couldn't break his heart like this right now. He obviously wanted to see her for whatever reason. I didn't know why, but I didn't want to upset him at a time like this.

A little while later, my phone rang again. Expecting it to be my mother, I ignored it. It started ringing immediately after the first call ended. Annoyed, I looked at the screen. Stephanie.

I answered nervously.

"Aubree, you need to get to Charlotte as soon as possible." She said.

"Why Charlotte?" I asked nervously. We were in Raleigh, North Carolina now.

"Roman. That's where he was life flighted. He isn't doing well."

My heart stopped. "Steph, that's almost 3 hours away."

"I know. There's a car out front of the hospital for you now. Vince is on his way in to be with your dad. But Aubree, I really think you need to go to Charlotte."

"Alright… I'm on my way."

…

Justin came along with me. We got into a black SUV out front. Vince told us where to find it when we were leaving the hospital. I felt like I was in a race movie. Our driver clearly had instructions to drive as fast as possible. The car was weaving between other cars on the highway. Justin held my hand in the car, squeezing it slightly.

I went online and began reading a news article about the shooting.

"Justin, this article says 12 dead and 22 injured. How is that even possible?" Tears began pouring down my face.

"There must've been more than 1 shooter…"

I continued reading. They had 2 men in custody now. I was sick to my stomach. Justin pulled me over to lean on his shoulder. He tried calming me down, but it only made it worse.

After what felt like forever, we finally pulled into the hospital parking lot in Charlotte.

I hesitated before moving.

"Are you going to be okay?" Justin asked me.

"I'm not sure."

He wiped away the tears that were still on my cheeks. "No matter what happens, I'll be here for you, okay?" he said, looking in my eyes.

I nodded, trying to remain composed. We thanked the driver and got out of the car. I took a deep breath as we walked into the hospital lobby. We went to the service desk and asked where he was located.

The woman behind the desk typed something on the computer, then said, "He is currently in ICU."

My heart sank. We thanked her, then went to the elevator.

"Are you alright?" Justin asked me as he was pressing the button to go to the 12th floor.

"No…"

"Yeah, that was a dumb question…" He looked down at his shoes.

The elevator chimed and the doors opened to bright fluorescent lights. Justin walked out in front of me, straight to the nurse's station.

"We're here to see Roman Reigns."

"Are you family?" the overly exhausted nurse said.

"I'm his.. I'm his girlfriend." I said.

"And he is?" she nodded at Justin.

"I'm his cousin." He lied. She looked us both up and down.

"Alright, well go ahead. Room 17C. Down the hall to the right."

We took off down the hall and went through the double doors into the actual ICU. We were surrounded by the noise of papers shuffling and heart monitor beeps. I looked in each room we passed. Mostly elderly people, but the occasional young adult.

We finally got to 17A. I slowed down my pace. Only two more rooms until we got to Roman.

Justin reached out for my hand, "It'll be okay. I promise."

I grabbed it and we slowly approached 17C. I pushed the door open and saw Roman lying unconscious in the bed, hooked up to dozens of machines. I walked towards his unmoving body. My throat began to tighten up. I felt Justin's hand resting on my lower back, as a form of support.

"Oh my God…" I said sitting in a chair next to the bed, breaking down in a quiet sob.

Justin stepped back from me, staying silent.

A nurse pushed the door open again, entering it quickly.

"Oh, Roman has visitors! Hi! I'm Miranda!" she greeted us cheerfully. How could a nurse working in the ICU dealing with dying patients be so positive and optimistic?

"What is wrong with him?" I asked her with a shaky voice.

"Well, as you know he was shot. Shot multiple times actually. Once in his abdomen area, one up in his chest and shoulder area, and then his left arm was grazed. They brought him in for surgery, but there were complications…"

"What do you mean there were complications?"

"Well, for starters he lost a lot of blood. They managed to get the bullets out, but there was a lot of damage internally." She continued talking while she messed with the machines he was connected too. "The bullet that hit his chest, was near his heart. It didn't hit his heart, but just very close. And then his abdomen had severe damage due to where he was struck. We were lucky it didn't penetrate his stomach, he would've bled out on the scene." She said nonchalantly.

Justin jumped in, "Is he going to be okay?"

"Right now we are unsure. He is in a medically induced coma. It'll protect him. If he would be awake, he would be in such severe pain it would cause his body to just shut down."

Hearing that, my heart deflated. I couldn't control my sobs anymore. He needed to be okay. I needed him to wake up.

"Aubs, hey, let's take a walk." Justin said to me.

He grabbed my hand and I followed him in the hall. He led me back to the elevator and to the basement of the hospital. He led me to the church in the basement of the hospital.

"I don't know your view on religion, but this is a great place to come and just get away from it all for a little bit." He said, sitting down in a pew.

I had never been in a church before. Due to my father's traveling schedule, he was always on the road on Sundays and growing up, my mom would never get out of bed on Sundays because of her hangovers from Saturday nights.

"What if he doesn't wake up?" I asked.

"He will. He's a fighter."

"We all are, that's our job. But, what if he can't kick out of this one?"

"Don't think negatively. He needs all the positive thoughts he can get right now."

"God damn it!" I yelled, before realizing that I probably shouldn't be saying that in a church, but it was too late. "If we would've just stayed in the closet he would be fine! He would still be here.." I started crying again.

"What closet?"

"We were in a storage closet… Talking… and we heard the fire alarms and he thought it was a fire so we immediately booked it out of the closet. But, he went one way and I went the other. I should've followed him. I should've stayed with him."

"And what good would that have done? Then you would both be laying in a hospital bed right now." Justin said. He had a good point, but I still felt guilty for leaving him.

I sat in silence for a while, lost in my thoughts. What could I have done different? What if I would've followed him? What if he didn't wake up?


	20. Chapter 20- The Waiting Game

Since Roman was in the ICU, visiting hours ended earlier than the rest of the hospital. The nurses assured me that they would call me immediately if his condition changed. Justin and I checked into a hotel a block over to wait until the next morning when we could go back.

"Do you want to order room service?" Justin asked.

"No thanks," I answered him.

"Come on, you haven't eaten anything today."

"I'm not hungry," I hadn't even realized I hadn't eaten anything since the shooting happened. I had no appetite.

"Aubree…"

"Justin, I'm not fucking hungry, okay?!" I snapped at him. After that he laid off. He ordered himself food, but didn't say anything else to me about eating.

I knew he understood why I had snapped, but I still felt terrible. After all, he'd stayed with me through this entire tragedy and for that I would be forever grateful.

"What do you want to watch?" he said, gesturing towards the TV.

"Don't care."

"Want to rent a movie?"

"Don't care."

He sighed loudly, "Okay, then." He began flipping through the channels. I got under my covers and pulled the blanket over my head.

I heard the voices on the TV. "We are reporting here live from the scene of one of the most horrifying tragedies in sports history," The news anchor's voice boomed through the room. "The day started out perfectly normal for the crew and athletes as they arrived here to the arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, but once early afternoon rolled around, things drastically changed when two armed men managed to get into the arena and starting shooting inside. The talent was escorted to a nearby church, then later went back to hotels, or caught a flight back to their homes. Vince McMahon has released a statement explaining what we can expect in the future, here is the clip." The anchor stopped talking and I heard Vince's video playing.

He was clearly distraught and had a hard time completing his sentences. He finished up by saying that we needed time to heal, physically and emotionally, before we could pick ourselves up and move forward, but we would be back and we would be stronger than ever.

Vince's video ended and the reporter started talking again, "Both of the attackers were caught on scene and taken into custody. At this time we can report there are 22 injured and 12 deceased among the superstars of WWE, the backstage crew, and the arena's employees. We will keep you up to date with more breaking news as it becomes available to us. Back to you in the studio." There was a pause, then a male's voice went on to report a completely different story.

Justin clicked the TV off after that. I rolled back over, facing his bed now. He was staring straight ahead, at the dark TV.

"What're you thinking about?" I asked him.

"All of it, you know? It all happened so fast. It doesn't seem real."

"I understand.. I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier." I apologized.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I understand. It's been a rough day." He grinned at me.

"Justin…"

"What's up?"

"Thank you."

"For what?" He seemed confused.

"For staying with me. For just being here for me when I needed you the most."

He sat up and stared at me for a minute. "You think I would let you go through this alone?"

I shrugged, "I'm not used to having someone who cares about me that much that they would drop everything in the middle of a tragedy just to make sure I'm okay."

"Come over here," he said, scooting over in his bed, making room for me. I did what he told me and I slid under his bed sheets. He wrapped his arm around me and I snuggled up to him. All I could think of at this time was Roman. He was dying in a hospital bed and I was cuddled up to someone else.

"What'd your mom really say on the phone?" Justin whispered.

I explained to him what she had said and that she told me not to call her ever again.

"You know what, that's her loss. She's missing out on an amazing girl."

…

The next morning we woke up and decided we should probably get back over to the hospital. The nurse hadn't called me, so I assumed that Roman was still the same.

We walked over to the hospital and back to the ICU floor. We walked back to where Roman's room was last night, except he wasn't in there. I walked in and saw two familiar looking people sitting in the chairs in the corner. The woman looked up at me, tapping her cheeks with a tissue, not saying anything. Justin nudged me forward, but it remained silent in the room.

I tried figuring out who the people were that looked so familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"Can we help you?" the woman asked.

"Hi, uh, I was just coming to visit my kind of boyfriend, but I guess he must've gotten moved. I'm sorry, I'll just, I'll just go to the nurse's station and locate the right room, I'm sorry." I said, trying to leave the room as quickly as possible.

"Wait, aren't you Laurinaitis' daughter?" The man asked.

"Yeah…"

"And you're Gabriel, correct?" he pointed at Justin.

Justin nodded.

"I knew you two looked familiar.. I'm Sika, Roman's father."

My heart stopped. I thought I was going to throw up right there. Sika shook Justin's hand, then reached out for mine.

"You two are here to see Roman, right?" He chuckled.

I nodded, unable to speak.

"They didn't tell you?" His voice softened. I felt my throat clench up, "Early this morning, he needed another emergency surgery. There were complications. They didn't give us all the details, but they said they needed to get him stabilized immediately."

I felt Justin's arm around my shoulder. Roman's mother was once again crying in the corner. Justin squeezed me tightly, while I began to cry.

…

Nobody said anything for a long time. The silence felt like it was drowning me, so I had to say something.

"I want to apologize to both of you." I said, getting their attention. They both looked at me confused. "I am so sorry I didn't stay with him. I should've followed him. I should've been there for him."

Roman's mother cried, while Sika shook his head, "No, no. Don't apologize. It's not your fault. You didn't know what was happening. Do not blame yourself for this."

"So, you're his girlfriend?" His mom asked.

"Kind of," I said. They both looked confused. "We were broken up for a while, but we had just made up. Then this happened. We never made it official again, but…" I started crying, "I love your son. I love him so much."

Roman's mom continued crying, while his dad just stared at me, not saying anything. I was unsure of how to read him, which worried me.

A doctor came back in, interrupting our conversation.

"I have good news and bad news." He said, "Good news, the surgery was successful. We stopped the internal bleeding. The bad news is, he is still in a coma and we are unsure of how long it will be until he wakes up. At this point, the coma is no longer a medically induced one, so he is able to wake up when his body feels it is ready."

"He is going to wake up, right?" I questioned.

"Right now, that is unclear. It is all up to him at this point. Right now, it's just going to be a waiting game."


	21. Chapter 21- Mother Dearest

A few days had passed and Roman was still in the coma. My dad was released from the hospital and came with Vince to see Roman. The house shows for the weekend were cancelled due to the incident and injuries with some of the roster. Vince informed me that all the superstars and divas were still alive and at home, although Sheamus and Golddust were still hospitalized with injuries, although they would be fine. Roman was in the worst condition as a performer.

I was glad to see my dad was okay and out of the hospital now. He seemed to be back to his old self, which was a relief. Vince, on the other hand, seemed to still be scatter-brained. He was visibly shaken up and uneasy standing in the hospital. Justin and I had been spending our days the same, spend all day long at the hospital, then go to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep, then repeat the next morning.

One morning a few hours after arriving at the hospital, Justin offered to go get Roman's parents, and I breakfast. I offered to go with him, but he told me I should stay and get to know Roman's family better.

After Justin left, there was an awkward silence for a while. Sika went to use the bathroom and Roman's mother finally began talking to me.

"I'm sorry I've been so cold towards you. This is just really hard for me," she said.

"It's okay, I understand."

"I'm Patricia, by the way. I don't think I introduced myself."

I wasn't sure what to say, so I just nodded.

"So what's your story anyway?"

"I'm a diva, pretty new to the main roster, actually…"

"No," Patricia interrupted me, "Not your wrestling story, I've heard enough of those in my day. I want to know what makes you who you really are."

I thought about it for a minute. "Well, I was raised in San Bernardino, California. My dad was always on the road and my mom was always drunk. They both had their fair share of affairs, so I have trust issues. Sometimes I wish I would've gone to college right out of high school instead of starting my career right away, but I didn't. And sometimes I feel like the most alone person in the world, even when I'm surrounded by thousands of people."

She stared at me intently, staying silent and just nodding. I looked over at Roman, then back at her before she finally spoke again. "So why didn't you go to college?"

"I wanted to be in the ring. That's all I've ever wanted. I couldn't wait to graduate so I could begin training all day every day. It's what I am passionate about, it's what I love. And as a woman in this business, I believe the younger you start, the better off you are. If I would've waited until I was 23 to start training after college, I would already be behind. And most divas retire before they're 35 so they can be moms, so I just wanted to make the most of it."

"Interesting…" She lightly tapped her chin. This woman was incredibly hard to read. "So where do you see yourself after wrestling?"

"Honestly, I've never thought about life after WWE. I always just pictured myself wrestling until I was too old to get around by myself."

"So you don't want children?"

"To be honest, I've never thought about it."

"Hmm…" She paused, "You know, having a big family is part of Roman's life. He wants to have many children."

"Oh," was all I could say.

Her tone changed, "He wants at least 4 babies. Do you think you could handle that? If not, I suggest you get up and leave this hospital room now and don't bother pursuing a further relationship with him."

"Ma'am, we haven't talked about marriage or children or anything like that. I'm not against having children, but I haven't thought about it much either."

"Well now you know my perspective on it. There are a lot of women who would give anything to marry my son and give him the family he not only wants, but the family he deserves."

I was speechless. Luckily, Sika returned a few moments after. While he was talking to Patricia, I text Justin not to come back in the room, I needed to go find him.

…

I met with Justin at a local Starbucks. He was confused as to why I left the hospital in such a hurry, but I couldn't sit there with Roman's mother anymore. When I saw Justin, I ran to him and cried onto his shoulder in a hug.

"What's the matter?!" He asked concerned.

"His mom! His mom is the matter!" I went on to explain what had happened in the short time that he was gone.

"Aubree, she's stressed. I'm sure she's just trying to think of the future, rather than Roman's current situation."

"No! She hates me! I'm telling you, she hates me!"

He chuckled. "I'm sure she doesn't hate you."

"Ugh!"  
>"Alright, let's take this breakfast back to them. You'll have to face her eventually."<p>

…

It was a few nights later when I got a call in the middle of the night from the hospital. My heart immediately sank, thinking they were going to tell me what I couldn't bear to hear.

"Hello..?" I answered wearily.

"Hi, this is Dr. Monroe from the hospital calling. I would like to inform you that Roman has woken up."

I screamed and jumped on Justin to wake him up. "JUSTIN! JUSTIN! COME ON! WE HAVE TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL NOW!"

Still half asleep, Justin rolled out of bed and got dressed. We got ready in record time and made our way to the hospital.

We sprinted to his room and saw doctors surrounding his bed, asking him questions. His voice was raspy and low. I could barely hear what he was saying from the door.

The doctors finished talking to him and asked to talk to me.

"So, he's still a bit confused, not remembering everything." The doctor started to tell me. "Don't take it personally if he forgets your name that is normal in cases like this."

I nodded. The doctor then gestured it was okay for me to go in.

"Do you want me to come too?" Justin asked.

"No thank you, I think it'll be better to do this alone." He nodded when I said that and went to sit in the lobby area down the hall.

I slowly walked into the room, realizing I was really afraid of what was about to happen.

"Hey…" I whispered to get his attention, sitting next to his bed.

"Hi," he was mostly monotone.

"How are you feeling?"

"Didn't you just ask me this?" he questioned.

"Roman, it's me, Aubree… I'm not a doctor."

"Who?"

I took a deep breath, "Aubree. I'm your girlfriend."

He stared at me, confused. "I thought Summer was my girlfriend."

"She used to be… You guys broke up, though."

"Interesting…"

We were interrupted when his parents barged through the door. His mom rushed to his side, pushing me out of the way in my chair, hugging and kissing her son. His father stood off to the side smiling. I slowly walked out of the room, with Roman staring at me the whole time.

I stood outside the door, not wanting to venture off too far. Justin saw me and began walking down the hall.

"How'd it go?" he asked me once he arrived to me.

"He didn't remember me. He thought Summer was his girlfriend…"

"Oh, Aubs…"

"No it's fine. The doctor said this was normal. He is probably just blocking that day out, you know? Like a coping method… We did just make up that day…"

We fell silent for a minute, when I heard Roman talking inside the room, "Who was that girl?"

"Oh, nobody. She shouldn't have been allowed in here. She was just a fan." His mother answered.

"Oh, okay."

…

I didn't go back to the hospital for three days. I didn't want to be faced with Patricia so soon after what she had told Roman. I knew he would've believed her because she was his mother. I was incredibly pissed off that she had said that, but I knew I had to get over it. Roman would eventually be better and everything would go back to normal.

I told Justin that if he wanted he could fly back to Tampa and get on with his life. I felt bad for keeping him here with me, but he didn't seem to mind. He agreed that it would probably be a good idea because Roman was now awake and healing. He took a cab to the airport and I was left alone in the hotel room. In fear of going to the hospital and dealing with Patricia alone, I decided calling the hospital before going was a better idea.

The doctor I spoke to told me that his parents had just left and that nobody was visiting right now, so now would be a good time to come see him.

When I got to his room, he looked up at me, "You're not supposed to be here."

"Roman, it's me. Aubree."

"My mom said you're not allowed to be here."

"She lied. Roman I have been here for you every single day. I love you."

He didn't say anything.

"Roman, look, these are pictures of us together," I pulled my phone out and showed him pictures of us together from before the accident.

He still remained silent.

"Please, you have to believe me," I pleaded.

"Aubree…" His voice changed tones, like a light bulb went off.

"Yeah…"

"Aubree!" He pushed himself up to a sitting position, but then grimaced in pain and fell backwards on his bed.

"Hey now, take it easy baby."

"Aubree!" he exclaimed again. He was excited he was remembering this, but I was just as excited.

I leaned over to kiss him when there was a knock on the door.

His mom was back.

And she looked pissed.


End file.
